The way of business solutions
www.insightssuccess.in JANUARY 2018
30
The
INNOVATORS who Changed The
STARTUP WORLD
Sandeep Jha CEO & MD
Vinod Nair Director
Supporting the Lifesciences Business Globally
Editorial
W
e’re living in a fearless innovative new world of democracy in startup funding and the question is no longer, Can you raise funds? It's, Should you raise funds? Is it the right move for your company and, if it is, then where do you start? For a long time now, venture capital has been at the center of the startup universe. It’s not hard to see why people feel like they have to raise money to move forward. Today, startup media is wall-to-wall coverage of who’s getting funded and who’s doing these spectacular multi-billion dollar rises. Venture capital is one way to fund a company. It’s one way. Not the way. There are all kinds of ways to build a company, from small business loans to friends and family raises to good old-fashioned sweat equity.
Fundraising: The Center of Startup Universe
Startups are a gamble. Everyone knows that. But when playing the fundraising game, your job is to make investors feel like yours is the safest bet they can make. Never forget that fundraising is a two-way exchange. If you want to get value, you have to give value back. Investors are looking for something from you. Make sure you show them that you have something to offer – and you're ready to deliver. Once you decide you need capital for your company, getting that capital becomes your job. And, like any job, you get out of fundraising what you put in. So make sure you’re ready to put in your absolute best. No amount of capital is worth giving up on your vision, or taking your company in a direction that you’re not passionate about. So before anybody signs on the dotted line, make sure you and your would-be investors have compatible visions about where your company is headed. Startup fundraising is not any magic, and it’s not a rocket science. It takes time, it takes effort, and it could be the best decision you ever make or the worst. So if you’re thinking about fundraising, think really, really hard.
Abhinav Chandrayan
Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal Senior Editor Shraddha Deshpande Managing Editor Abhinav Chandrayan Co-Editors Sachin Bhandare Ananda Das Art & Design Director Amol Kamble Co-designer Aparna Vanzul Picture Editor Alex Noel Art Editor Shweta, Sapana Visualiser Shweta Shinde Business Development Manager Akansha Garewal Marketing Manager Dhruv Apte Business Development Executives Daneshwar, Meera, Tarun, Ajinkay Research Analyst David Circulation Manager Vivek Database Management Prashant Technology Consultant Swapnil Patil sales@insightssuccess.com
January, 2018 Corporate Ofď€ ces: Insights Success Media and Technology Pvt. Ltd. Off. No. 513 & 510, 5th Flr., Rainbow Plaza, Shivar Chowk, Pimple Saudagar, Pune, Maharashtra 411017 Phone - India: 020-69400110, 111, 112 Email: info@insightssuccess.in For Subscription: www.insightssuccess.in
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Cover Story GenLife:
10
Supporting the Lifesciences Business Globally Interview With Insights Success
26
Workolab: Facilitating Research among Emerging Entrepreneurs and Researchers
20
Jugnoo Providing an Instant Access to Reliable and Affordable Services
CONTENTS 46 Chalk Talk Not Just Another Number Game, Please
60 Expert Insights Opportunities & Challenges in Managing E – Governance Projects
CXO Standpoint
ApnaCourse: 24 An Extraordinary E-tutoring Platform for Professional Courses and Certicate Programs
Clap Global: 30 An Automated Platform Enabling a Unique Exchange of Cultures
52 Investoscope The Perks of Investing in a Startup in India
34 Grading Startup Ideas to scale up your startup
Article’s
32
CNB: Building Business with Efď€ cient Shipping Logistics
Kallows Engineering India: A Superior Platform Changing the Game of Healthcare Industry
36
38
Kreate Konnect: Making Online Selling Process Faster, Smoother and Better
Pentation Analytics: A One Stop Analytical Platform for Motor, Health, P&C, and Life insurance
42
Robolab Technologies: A Perfect Platform to Explore, Learn and Build Ideas
44
50
SmartVizX: The Creator of Interactive and Futuristic Environments
Startup CafĂŠ Digital:
56 Offering Success through
a Full-service Inbound Marketing
58
Vaidam Health: An Online One-Stop Platform for Medical Travellers
64
Varutra Consulting: Offering Specialized Security Services with Novelty and Ingenuity
Xi Finserv Limited: Offering the Most Convenient Financia l Services
66
The Emergence of Pioneering Startup Companies
T
he emergence of Startup wave in India is a relatively new phenomenon. India is today undergoing a fundamental shift with entrepreneurship & innovation being primary catalysts in job creation and solving everyday problems. A decade ago, there used to be only a handful of Indian Startup success stories but now, the Startup Ecosystem has indeed come a long way. The startup industry is driven by factors such as availability of funding, consolidation activities by a number of firms, evolving technology space and a burgeoning demand within the domestic market has led to the emergence of successful startups. Here in the Insights Success magazine we are pleased to introduce experienced and skillful professionals to scrutinize your information in its special issue of “The 30 Innovators Who Changed the Startup World” As our cover story we have, Generix Lifesciences, a professionally managed company supporting the Life Sciences business globally. Apart from this, we have highlighted one of the most renowned firms, ApnaCourse, India’s First Fully Online Training platform for Globally Recognized Certifications and Concept-Based Learning brought to you by highly professional, qualified, celebrated & certified Experts, Clap Global, a unique platform for cultural exchange that enables international travelers to visit local school classrooms and have eye-opening conversations with students, CNB Technologies, Focuses on container shipping logistics industry and delivers a pedestrian free yard by planning and managing all the tasks using real time information with 100% accuracy. Their IOT infrastructure inside the yard records all the movement data accurately without any manual intervention, Kallows Engineering India, a mobile health based medical device company that aims at introducing innovative healthcare technologies using smartphone applications, that can change the game of the Healthcare Industry, Kreate Konnect, an end-to-end e-commerce management company that helps sellers sells their products on various e-commerce marketplaces across domestic and International markets, Pentation Analytics, as an InsurTech, provides state-of-the art analytics applications for the Insurance Industry, centering which is their evolutionary analytical product - Insurance Analytics Suite®, Robolab Technologies, a technology driven company, with current offerings for robotics, automation and Internet of Things for education and industrial sectors, SmartVizX, India’s leading Virtual Reality Solutions Company that is disrupting traditional passive and static design visualization methodologies by creating high quality Virtual Reality based across platform solutions that are immersive, interactive and engaging, Startup Cafe Digital, a full-service inbound marketing agency based in Bangalore, India. Our focus is to help small to mid-sized businesses tackle their most intense digital marketing challenges and optimize their online presence, Vaidam Health, a medical travel assistant company, researching and connecting International patients with doctors and hospitals in India for treatment at affordable prices. Along with that we offer concierge to travelling patients and companion, Varutra Consulting, is a pure play Information Security Consulting, Research and Training services firm, providing specialized security services for software, mobile devices, and network, and Xi Finsierv Limited, one of leading financial services providing company with diversified and broad range of financial products and services to a substantial client base including Individuals to Institutions and industries. Also, we have Interview with Insights Success with Jugnoo, primarily an on-demand hyper-local transport and logistics app that thrives on its expansive network of auto-rickshaws across the country and Workolab, the world's first co-working space with research hubs all across India. Do not miss out the CXO on Not Just Another Number Game, Please by Mr. Asif Upadhye, Director and Chief Fun Officer at Never Grow Up and articles from the editorial desk. So, do flip the pages of our magazine to uncover the insights of Innovative Startup Companies!
Sandeep Jha CEO & MD
Vinod Nair Director
Gen Life
Supporting the Lifesciences Business Globally
D
uring 2017 alone, 1000 plus startups have been added to the Indian startup ecosystem. 2018 will only be adding newer dimensions to this. Startup hiring is set to grow further in 2018 compared to 2017, with analytics slated to be one of the most sought-after skill-set. In 2018, startups will increasingly invest in focusing on ‘quality hire’more than ‘quantity’and will look beyond hiring from IITs and explore key talent from top engineering colleges in Tier 2 cities and also leverage meetups like hackathons for recruitment. The government is encouraging start-ups in a big way and we have seen an exponential growth in the number of new ventures opening every day. Launched in a glittering function at Darbar Hall, Taj Palace Hotel, New Delhi on 31st July 2011, GenLife (a Quality Of Life division of Generix Lifesciences Pvt Ltd) is a professionally managed company supporting the Lifesciences business globally. The occasion was attended by more than 250 eminent Doctors and many pharmaceutical industry stalwarts. GenLife launched 4 Japanese Products, which are all unique and under patent, on the same day and the respective Japanese Manufacturers made a detailed technical presentation to the doctors regarding the products. All the guests thereafter enjoyed a live session of music with “Indian Ocean”. GenLife was awarded ISO 9001:2008 (Quality Management System) on 04/10/2013, ISO 9001:2015 (Quality Management System) and ISO 22000:2005 (Food Safety Management System) on 03/10/2016. Promising Services of GenLife Promoted by pharmaceutical professionals, GenLife business model is based on concept marketing its unique and innovative, premium Nutraceutical and Cosmeceutical products to top Specialists / Doctors to create an enviable Niche for itself. GenLife expanded its Sales operations geographically to Mumbai in March 2012, Hyderabad in October 2012, Pune in February 2013, Bangalore in July 2016 and Ahmedabad in April 2017. GenLife added 3 new products from USA to its portfolio in August 2012, 4 products from Japan in June 2013 and 4 more cosmeceuticals from USA in December 2014. GenLife now has a portfolio of 15 unique and innovative products with little or no competition in the market. GenLife currently has more than 100 employees in a flat organization structure which breeds responsibility, sense of ownership and entrepreneurship. GenLife has participated in and sponsored many academic programs, seminars and clinical research to create awareness and acquire knowledge, regarding the latest trends in Nutrition and Health. GenLife has been featured/listed/awarded the following recognitions: ● 10 Best Healthcare Startups by Silicon India Startup City Magazine with a Cover Feature in its September 2016 issue. ● 30 Best Startups 2017 with a cover feature in Insights Success April 2017 issue.
“
“
We focus our marketing efforts on Doctors who prescribe to their patients
● 25 Most Valuable StartUps in India 2017 and featured in the CEO Magazine. ● Ones to Watch in India 2017 by the Acquisition International. ● Power Brand” at the award function 70 Most Inspiring Power Brand Rising Star2017/18. ● Excellence Award for the “Fastest Growing Indian Company” from International Achievers Conference and Indian Economic Development and Research Association ● “Bharat Nirman Award For Industry Development” at the “National Summit” on “Individual Contribution For National & Social Development” by Indian Organisation For Commerce And Industry (IOCI) GenLife wishes to become India’s top Nutraceutical Company offering innovative, proprietary & patented products to its customers through a unique delivery model & robust supply chain with dedicated consumer care, R&D, accredited manufacturing & analytical capabilities to create an attractive value proposition for all stakeholders. Over the coming few years, GenLife has plans to increase its revenues 30 fold, expand the product portfolio to 50-60 similarly positioned products and create a presence in a total of 35 Metros and more Tier I locations through the Franchise model. GenLife’s journey till now has been funded through promoters’ capital, internal accruals and debt. However, the business is at the point of inflection GenLife will look for Investors who wish to participate in the projected exponential growth. Masterminds of GenLife With over 25 years of experience in the business industry, Sandeep Jha, CEO & MD of Genlife. He is a graduate in B.Tech (Chemical) from IIT Banaras Hindu University and holds a PGDBM degree from IIM, Calcutta. Sandeep specializes in Business Strategy, Trade and Corporate
Finance, Marketing, Manufacturing Operations, Global Supply Chain Management and Business Systems. Vinod Nair, Director of Genlife is a graduate in Commerce from Delhi University and holds a PGDP degree in management. He has over 25 years of experience in middle and senior management of giants like - Shaw Wallace Ltd, Allied Domecq and as an entrepreneur. He has widely traveled in Europe, Australia, Japan, China and Asia. Vinod specializes in Business Development, Finance and Accounting, Global Sourcing, and International Operations. Changing the Startup World Due to various socio-economic changes in India, the society is dealing with all adverse consequences of a sedentary lifestyle. Their traditional oily + spicy food coupled with minimal to zero activity has led India in becoming the Diabetes and Cardio-Vascular Disease capital of the World. Economic development has also brought with its magnified stress levels and no time to de-stress, to make things worse. Healthcare costs have also concurrently risen astronomically. They felt that the time has come for Indians to focus on prevention of disease and subsequently improve the general quality of life. “We studied the patterns globally apart from the customer survey in India to assess the need for the hour. Lack of awareness in the Indian population regarding preventive therapies pushed us towards a model wherein we sell our Nutraceuticals and Cosmeceuticals through Doctor’s prescriptions. This will lead to a gradual percolation of information to the consumers and hence create awareness in the long run,” asserts Sandeep and Vinod.
Fascinating Services of the Company Aquecium: Due to its properties like natural ionic state, and high porosity, this product is more bio-available than elemental Calcium. It contains 72 vital trace elements, which are essential for the human body. Enlighten: Unique formula with a combination of Graminex Rye Grass Flower Pollen Extract and 18 other natural ingredients makes it one of the best natural skin healing agent in the world. Reduces melanin production up to 50 percent and lightens the skin tone by 11 percent. Epiregen: A combination of Graminex Rye Grass Flower Pollen Extract and 18 other natural ingredients along with natural antioxidants and tannins help to improve the microstructure of the skin, reduce wrinkle depth and rejuvenate the skin networking structure on the face, neck and décolleté. Epivitale: Acting as a natural moisturizer for smooth and healthy skin, this natural preservative, antioxidant and moisturizer reduces transdermal water loss and acts as a natural barrier against harmful UV rays. Eyelixir: Diminishes dark circle and alleviates swollen and puffy eyes, promotes lipolysis that reduces the orange peel appearance of cellulite, stimulates lymphatic drainage and blood flow helping to eliminate water retention and congestion that can cause stagnation of blood. Flabonoid: This safe nutrigenomic product is helpful in treating metabolic syndrome. Enhances basal metabolic rate
by increasing β-oxidation and its one capsule has an equal effect to 30 minutes of exercise, controls border-line blood glucose level, and controls dyslipidemia among several others. Glowrious: Precursor of Hyaluronic Acid which is essential for youthful, supple and wrinkle-free skin. Moisturizes nourishes and softens the skin, reduces the appearance of fine lines and spots on the skin and reduces the probability of formation of wrinkles, underlines and ridges. H minus: The active hydrogen ion in h minus protects cells against oxidative stress, acts as a therapeutic antioxidant by selectively reducing cytotoxin O2 radicals, protects neurons from in-vitro ischemia and reperfusion and several other such benefits. Menoquil: Highly synergistic combination of Rye Grass flower pollen extract and Royal Jelly in balanced quantities provides relief from menopausal syndrome effectively. Nagossein: This natural N-Acetyl Glucosamine supplement rejuvenates joints from within, helps in alleviating symptoms related to Osteoarthritis, has a significantly lower metabolic load as compared to others and increases the lubrication and rebuilding of cartilages. Reguflo: A highly synergetic combination of Rye Grass flower pollen extract and Saw Palmetto extract helps decrease the size of the prostate gland and other symptoms of BPH. This completely safe and effective therapy
manages mild to moderate symptoms caused by BPH and other prostate problems. Stomulate: The rich extracellular polysaccharide enables this acid resistant probiotics supplement survives and multiplies even in gastric acid pH. The product has an excellent ability to adhere to stomach mucosa and inhibit gastritis and H.pylori induced peptic ulcer, amongst several other benefits. UbiActiv QH: The first and only active form of CoQ10 replenishes reduced form of CoQ10 in cells and is a vital substance for energy production in cells. UbiActivPlus QH: Replenishes reduced form of CoQ10 in the seminal fluid, participates in an electron transport chain reaction and is a vital substance for energy production. Utiremede: 30 percent of the UTI cases have a recurrence, thus making it the 2nd most common infection in the body. Utiremede’s natural ingredients like Cranberry and Graminex Rye Grass Flower Pollen Extract helps reduce harmful bacterial colonization in UTI, due to its anti-adhesion property, and provides relief from UTI related symptoms. Strength and Future Plans of GenLife GenLife wishes to enhance “Quality of Life” by prevention and treatment of diseases through optimal nutrition and increased awareness in India. GenLife attributes its success to a clear business model, excellent product selection, good understanding of our consumers and their needs, dynamic organization structure and excellent work culture. They highly focus on their marketing efforts on the doctors who prescribe to their patients. The patients then buy from GenLife directly or through pharmacies/hospitals and are their actual consumers. GenLife have hired a group of Pharmacy Graduates in CRM who handle all consumer queries effectively as they treat it as their responsibility to create awareness in the Indian Consumer regarding these safe and natural preventive therapies.
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Alma mapper Technologies www.almamapper.com
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HRLABZ is a professionally managed Human Resources Organization head quartered at Chennai. We are empowered by the professional maturity and entrepreneurship of young and sizably networked members of the management drawn from various Industries like Manufacturing, IT, IT enabled Services, Telecom, Banking, Pharma, Consumer Services etc.both from HR domain and also other domain functions thus giving HOLESTIC and a unique perspective & knowledge of each industry.
Care24 www.care24.co.in
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CNB Technologies www.cnbtek.com
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CNB Technologies focuses on container shipping logistics industry and delivers a pedestrian free yard by planning and managing all the tasks using real time information with 100% accuracy.
Codewave Technologies Private Limited www.coodewave.in
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Codewave is a technology services company, designing and engineering impactful solutions with trending digital technologies, giving businesses speed, scale and style.
Edge networks pvt ltd www.edgenetworks.in
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EdGE Networks Pvt. Ltd. provides NextGen Technology Solutions for Workforce Transformation. Their strength is in harnessing artificial intelligence and data science to solve the toughest talent acquisition and workforce optimization challenges faced by organizations.
Generix Lifesciences Pvt. Ltd www.generixlife.com
Sandeep Jha CEO & MD
GenLife is a professionally managed company supporting the Life Sciences business globally.
Integrated Tech9labs www.tech9labs.in
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Kallows Engineering India www.kallows.com
Gajanan Nagarsekar MD & Founder
Kallows is a mobile health based medical device company that aims at introducing innovative healthcare technologies using smartphone applications, that can change the game of the Healthcare Industry.
Kreate Konnect www.kreatekonnect.com
Piyush Jaidev Co-founder & COO
Kreate Konnect is an end-to-end e-commerce management company that helps sellers sells their products on various ecommerce marketplaces across domestic and International markets.
Maple Cosulting & services www.maplecs.com
Anil Raikundlia Managing Director
Conceptualized and established in 2014, Maple Consulting & Services is a Mumbai-based HR firm that strongly believes that the quality of human capital of a company is the most significant parameter defining its success or failure.
Medikoe www.medikoe.com
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Medikoe is mobile app enables you to make a hyperlocal discovery in your neighbourhood and show your nearest possible results with accurate map listing of Healthcare and Wellness services also it will enable you to connect directly.
Mindler www.mindler.com
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Pentation Analytics Pvt Ltd www.pentationanalytics.com
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Pentation Analytics, as an InsurTech, provides state-of-the art analytics applications for the Insurance Industry, centering which is their evolutionary analytical product - Insurance Analytics Suite®.
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Power2SME is India’s first buying club for Small & Medium Enterprises, building the bridges between SMEs in the manufacturing industry and raw material suppliers.
Robolab Technologies www.robolab.in
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SirionLabs www.sirionlabs.com
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SirionLabs is the leading enterprise SaaS provider for post-signature contract management. The Sirion platform significantly reduces the cost of supplier governance by automating complex procedures across key governance disciplines of contract, performance, financial, relationship, and risk management.
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Startup Café www.startupcafeindia.com
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Startup Cafe Digital is a full-service inbound marketing agency based in Bangalore, India. Our focus is to help small to midsized businesses tackle their most intense digital marketing challenges and optimize their online presence.
The udChalo www.udchalo.com
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UdChalo is the first-ever air-discount service for Indian armed forces that gets you the unsold airline tickets at upto 40% discount.
Trace VFX www.tracevfx.com
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UXInterface www.uxinterface.in
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Vaidam Health www.vaidam.com
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Varutra Consulting Pvt. Ltd www.varutra.com
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Wow Labz www.wowlabz.com
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Xi Finserv Limited www.xifinserv.com
Priyank Agarwal Founder & Chief Financial Controller, Sachin Gupta Co-founder & Chief Planner
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Voonik is India’s fastest growing Fashion Shopping App for women where you can buy fashion that suits your body, personality, lifestyle, and budget preferences.
Interview with Insights Success
T
he world is experiencing a surge of startups as well as entrepreneurs across verticals and industries. Startups are naturally very passionate and excited about their businesses, but communicating this passion as a viable venture for investors is equally crucial. Building a workable and scalable idea is fundamental to this process in the first place. You should have trust and belief in your idea, and also it needs to be applicable and functional in the marketplace. The business model needs to be scalable and relatable to other industries as well. Insights Success team interviewed Mr. Samar Singla, Co-founder & CEO of Jugnoo, on how Jugnoo sets itself apart and changed the startup world. We are pleased to share the inspiring words and insightful answers from them. Q. Please tell us about the journey of Jugnoo from its initial days, the growth, and its Expansion. Established in the year 2014 in Chandigarh, Jugnoo is primarily an on-demand hyper-local transport and logistics app that thrives on its expansive network of auto-rickshaws across the country. Disrupting the threewheeler transport segment in India, its objective is to systematize the highly unorganized auto-rickshaw sector by aggregating them through technology, thereby making it more efficient. Jugnoo has evolved over the past three years in terms of its business operations, technical advancements and verticals. It has expanded across other verticals of on-demand and hyper-local space. The idea is to establish Jugnoo as a key player in the market for providing all kinds of hyper local deliveries. Our vision is to build the first true hyper local marketplace in India that can deliver anything to anyone. With a market presence in more than 35 cities of India, 4.3 million registered users and 65,000 auto drivers, Jugnoo is trending at 30K daily transactions. The company is growing month on month consistently at 10%. The plan is to build our network PAN India with a focus on tier II and tier III cities of the country while disrupting the auto-rickshaw sector with technology. Q. What inspired you to come up with this idea, which changed the Startup World? Jugnoo is Chinmay’s and my brainchild. We launched it at a leading college fest (PECFEST) in Chandigarh as an experiment where we offered free rides to people. The response received at the fest was phenomenal which
Jugnoo Providing an Instant Access to Reliable and Affordable Services
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| January 2018 |
Samar Singla Co-founder & CEO
| January 2018 |
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made us sense the potential of such a service in India and led to the start of connecting auto-rickshaws with passengers, further utilizing it for logistics. One of the problems faced by the city people for daily commuting is finding a ride that is easily available, affordable and quick to board. And when it comes to driver issues, bargaining and idle times are the two things that kill their productivity. Jugnoo entered the market to solve the problem of commuting and increasing the efficiency of auto drivers. It creates ease of hailing an auto rickshaw by providing doorstep easy transport service. Q. Briefly tell us about yourself. An alumnus of IIT Delhi and a Physicist by education, I founded Jugnoo to solve India’s hyperlocal commerce problem. We bring in the core competencies to the working model of the company. I have also worked at IBM and CERN. My previous successful venture is Click Labs established in 2011, which is a profitable SaaS technology service provider. Q. What are the unique services/ products provided by Jugnoo? Currently, it has two major verticals - Rides and Deliveries. Operating under the aegis of Jugnoo, it offers diverse services like passenger rides (Rides), ready to eat meals (Meals), B2B and B2C deliveries including groceries, fruits, and vegetables (Grocery), restaurant food (Menus). The current addition is Fatafat - an on-demand concierge service provider that caters to all kinds of delivery needs of a user. Jugnoo Delivery, another major service is the B2B logistics vertical, an omnichannel, and on-demand hyper-local logistics service that enables vendors to deliver products to their customers as and when they want while ensuring a seamless delivery experience. Jugnoo also started integrating Unified Payment Interface (UPI) by the name of ‘Jugnoo Pay’, to encourage cashless economy - a step taken by Government of India in 2016. Q. Kindly brief us about your strategies behind those services/products. If possible, kindly give us a one line unique quote that best describes your company. Jugnoo started its journey as an auto aggregator and by scaling up its operational and technical advancements; it became the hyper local multipurpose app, which can be used for various transactional activities in day-to-day life. Realizing that Jugnoo needed to be backed by technology for smoother operations; we developed an in-house technology as a powerful management platform. To overcome the challenges of on-time deliveries, we introduced advanced features like route optimization, geo-analytics, and auto-allocation. All our offerings ride on the same backbone - the idea to increase the income of driver fleet by increasing utilization. By engaging auto drivers in both rides and deliveries, the company carefully balances demand and supply in a way, to manage the peak and low times very efficiently. “Following the stride of the latest trends coupled with the latest technology, Jugnoo is working towards being a onestop solution for hyper local needs of people.” Q. How do you work on your long-term relationship with your clients? Jugnoo uses the latest technology to constantly improve its processes and provide fastest solutions to its clients through its SaaS offerings. It builds its strength with the tech at its backbone, having in-house developers, continuously improving and updating, for better performance. We have proactive teams providing timely response to
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| January 2018 |
clients and resolving the matters quickly. We look at maintaining a healthy, long-term relationship with clients by always being there, stepping in their shoes and walking their journey with them. Q. Kindly brief us about the most satisfactory experience with a client. What kind of game-changing services have you provided to them? Jugnoo aims to provide its services as per the customer needs and current trends. One of our Delhi based client dealing in organic milk, located far away from the city was having troubles with delivering the product. Jugnoo provided the convenient way of inter and intra city logistics solutions at a very economical cost. The merchant can simply log on to the Delivery app, request the pickup, track the delivery and see if the delivery is made in time. This Jugnoo service helped to deliver fresh organic milk to the doorstep of the people, making the entire process easier. As a game changer, Jugnoo uses the same fleet of autos for passenger rides and deliveries. Drivers when not moving passengers are helping businesses by delivering products to their customers. Q. What challenges have Jugnoo faced on the road to success? Please share with us the issues a company in this field generally faces. At the time of launching, the challenge that Jugnoo faced was introducing technology to the auto-rickshaw drivers. Most of the auto-rickshaw drivers came from a section of society which was not familiar with the technology-based platform that they were expected to use. Convincing them to use the tech-enabled platform to earn their livelihood was a challenge. Jugnoo invested a lot of time and effort in educating and training the drivers on using the technology. It constantly strived to simplify the usability of the software application, with the aim to make it as simple as possible. Jugnoo technical team developed GUI that displayed the script of the vernacular, to further make the software application user-friendly. The other common challenge faced was getting the right talent and people. We hired people at a fast pace that resulted in bad hiring and waste of time and effort. Therefore we slowed down the process of hiring and focused on coaching and developing the employees. Competition is also something that we faced as a challenge. We entered the market at the time where other major players had already set their foothold. We focus on growth and fundamentals, offering services beyond auto rides to on-demand hyper local deliveries. Q. What are the values and factors that you attribute to, for your success? The ability to give my best while being disconnected from outcomes. Obsession with outcomes puts fear in people and they can’t focus on solving the problem at hand. The other extreme is not to worry about future at all and not work towards making your dreams a reality. It is tough to work hard and still take failure as the most common outcome. Yet, this is the life of entrepreneurs. It takes practice but can be done. Q. What is the greatest strength of Jugnoo? How is it helping to move forward with the future plans? We believe in sustainable development model which comes from steady growth and resilience to market conditions. With constant innovation in terms of our business model, our tech integration, management and communication strategies based on customer feedback, we keep the stimulating development at every stage. Another thing that works well for us is that we move fast, make mistakes and learn from them. We are constantly striving to bring new products to the market and scaling our existing products. We take every mistake as an opportunity to bring something new and unique. With the strong belief in “Execution” of the ideas, the company intends to further extend its reach in India, and introduce each of its services across those cities. Its mission is to become a prominent brand in the hyper-local segment in Tier II and Tier III cities in the near future by creating a diverse transportation system that benefits all involved. | January 2018 |
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ApnaCourse: An Extraordinary E-tutoring Platform for Professional Courses and Certicate Programs
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t all started back in August 2013 by Satish Rajagopalan. At that time, Satish was very fortunate to have been joined by 2 colleagues whom he knew from his earlier days. They together spent days over days with multitude of interviews to find the right candidate. And finally, all the efforts fruitfully paid off and a passionate and enthusiastic team of ApnaCourse was formed. Today, ApnaCourse.com has been listed by mooc-list.com and is the Only Indian MOOC as on date. Evolution of the Idea At present, ApnaCourse is serving thousands of individuals all over the world with multitudes of courses across various domains. The seed of the idea was laid a few years back when Satish was at Mumbai. His friends used to prepare for the CFA and FRM exams and would apply to classroom trainings. But given the work pressure, they would miss out on most classes. Furthermore, some trainers were students who had passed the certification exam few weeks ago and had no prior teaching experience. This motivated Satish to bring in an online platform with qualified experts to provide quality training. The idea has evolved over the years to what it is today. The Instigator of ApnaCourse Satish Rajagopalan, Founder, Director and CEO hold a B Tech (Computer Science) degree from VIT, CCAP Finance from NITIE. He is also an MBA in Strategy & Entrepreneurship from Great Lakes. He is a CISA, CISSP, CISM and an ITIL Foundation certified professional, having passed all these exams in his first attempt. He graduated magna cum laude (the highest level of academic
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distinction) in MBA (gold medalist) and a merit scholar in graduation. Satish has over 9 years of experience across multiple industries including a leading Mutual Fund house as a Business Analyst and Research Analyst at India’s largest Research and Ratings agency. He has also served as a member of the ISMS (Information Security Management System) committee and Director of Technology, providing strategic support in assessment and implementation of ISO/IEC 27001:2013 in his prior engagements. “Stay Focused and have an attitude to excel: I personally don’t think there’s anything more important to a new startup than to stay focused. There will be numerous days when critics will condemn the business proposal and mark it as uninteresting. But as a startup, if you have the gut feel to know that it will surely hit big, go with that feel and never turn back. Do not alter your business plan just because some expert asked you to do so,” advises Satish to the budding entrepreneurs. Unique Bouquet of Offerings Apnacourse launched by SpearheadEduOnline.com is India’s ‘first of its kind’ e-tutoring platform for professional courses and certificate programs. Domains for training include Financial Management Certifications like CFA, FRM, CFP et al., Project and Quality Management Certifications like PMI-ACP, PMP etc., IT Services and Security Management Certifications like ISTQB, CISA, CISM etc., and certifications like Business Analysis and more.
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Experience Education through Quality, Comfort and Affordability
Online Education through instructor led training via video combined with interactive sessions and the fact that candidates can learn at their convenience are unique. Products include Global Certifications in the fields of Finance, Management, IT are being delivered by ApnaCourse. ApnaCourse’s unique bouquet of offerings includes Unlimited Video Repeatability, Replenished Content every now and then, Progress tracker to keep track of your progress in the video, best in class Faculty and Real-time support. Instrumental Bonding with Clients ApnaCourse have well experienced accomplished and renowned faculties who have always been around when the candidates need them. They have been instrumental in bonding with their clients and the company is proud to give them an end to end support 24x7 resulting in a long-term relationship. They say, “The reviews which we receive from our clients speak volumes. We have many clients who are not just getting trained once, but they are our very cherished and recurring customers who wish to get themselves certified on varying topics. Our client database is huge, and it is an achievement by itself for ApnaCourse.” ApnaCourse says that the staff of the company is their greatest strength. They contribute to the success of the company. The follow ups, perseverance, perfection seeking employees are an asset to any organization. The company’s value systems are strong, and their vision is for a long term. The skill and the mission to achieve them is extraordinary which is being met by everyone involved with ApnaCourse, including the faculty and their satisfied customers.
| January 2018 |
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Satish Rajagopalan, Founder, Director & CEO Finding Opportunities in Challenges
According to ApnaCourse they have faced multiple challenges. The company’s biggest challenge was acquiring their First Faculty and getting the core team. Faculties were heavily skeptical about their online product. It took lot of efforts to convince them and after many weeks ApnaCourse got its first faculty to sign up. Today, they have faculties writing directly to them and asking for partnerships. As ApnaCourse stands today, they believe that there are no new challenges, just opportunities to grow bigger. As stated by ApnaCourse, they are not pitted against any existing player. This is because they are both an MOOC and an e-training provider. Hence, being low on price points, providing quality with renowned faculties and being Online as an MOOC, ApnaCourse is unique in today’s marketplace. Rising Up and Reflecting Consistent Growth ApnaCourse surely looks enticing for learners with popular certifications being provided at an affordable cost. The products, technology, efficient faculty, customers, employees are the company’s greatest assets. Without these they would not be where they are. The company has invested heavily in technology, which they believe is latest to ensure that they are up to date when interacting with customers. The technology of ApnaCourse is at its best so that the faculty should not feel any difficulty in delivering the lectures. The employees are well trained to use the best available in ApnaCourse. These factors help the company to move ahead with no hindrance to and it reflects on their consistent growth.
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Yashraj Bharadwaj & Yuvraj Bharadwaj Co-founders
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| January 2018 |
Interview with Insights Success
Wor o a : Facilitating Research among Emerging Entrepreneurs and Researchers
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he emergence of startup wave is undergoing through a fundamental shift with entrepreneurship & innovation being a key catalyst in job creation and solving everyday problems. A decade ago, there used to be only a handful of Indian startup success stories and now with time, startup ecosystem has indeed come a long way. Insights Success team interviewed with the young and dynamic business personas, Yashraj & Yuvraj Bhardwaj, the Co-founders of WorkoLab and we are glad to share their motivating words and insightful answers. Please tell us about the journey of WorkoLab from its initial days, the growth, and its expansion. WorkoLab is India’s first co-working space with an objective to facilitate research among the emerging entrepreneurs and researchers. Spread over an area of 12500 sq. ft., WorkoLab offers a collaborative space coupled with research guidance by India’s youngest scientific minds with an aim to infuse innovation into your startup idea. Co-founded by Yashraj and Yuvraj Bhardwaj with an initial seed capital amount of INR 3 Crore, the twin brothers identified an existing gap in ‘lack of coworking spaces and research hubs altogether at the same place’. The company has an aggressive roadmap ahead with a rapid growth plan and expansion to other cities like Mumbai, Pune, Kota, Chandigarh, Hyderabad, and Jaipur by March 2018. In the second phase, WorkoLab plans to take an international leap starting with Malaysia and Singapore and thereby launch 100+ centres in next 3 years across the globe. What inspired you to come up with this idea, which changed the Startup World? Co-working in India has been just made the business of table and chair. These days, we people are very high in talking about making global startups from India, but nobody is ready to accept the fact that innovation is something very important, if we want to bring a real change in the ecosystem. We thought of this concept to build cowering spaces with research hubs so that people are ready to take interest in innovation, research, and development. Briefly tell us about Mr. Yashraj & Mr. Yuvraj Bhardwaj, Co-Founders- WorkoLab. Yuvraj & Yashraj, 18 year old twins from Delhi, are the owners of the company Zenith Vipers, which they started back in 2013. Since then, they have never looked back and humbly climbed the steps of success with hard work and dedication. They have worked on 24 projects and filed 8 patents in a team of two. They got Karamaveer Chakra last year for
| January 2018 |
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their work and have been nominated for Padma Shri 2018. Recently, they got the ‘The Eagle Award’ from Malaysia. They have been winners of many fellowships too such as, SF Fellowship $250,000, Austrian Innovation Grant worth $40,000, and much more. What are the unique services/ products provided by WorkoLab? We are the first Co-Working space across the globe to provide research hubs to start-ups working with us to promote the concept of Research and Innovation. Kindly brief us about your strategies behind those services/products. If possible, kindly give us a one line unique quote that best describes your company. We are excited to build a thriving start-up community through the launch of WorkoLab. We are not just another coworking but are trying to trigger the spark of innovation into startups. The space can be used for research, collaboration, networking and support, which is a space where we bring together a community of like-minded graduate students, entrepreneurs, startups, software developers along with relevant mentors into the same ecosystem. How do you work on your long-term relationship with your clients? We are a space, which is not into lock-ins or anything like that with the clients taking our seats/research hub memberships. We simply work with them on concept, and expect them to grow. The curated people are sitting at our spaces. Kindly brief us about the most satisfactory experience with a client. What kind of game changing services have you provided to them? We have currently independent researchers who are working with us. The most fascinating fact is that these researchers are aged from 9 to 83. And 90 percent of these people undertaking research are without degrees. What challenges have WorkoLab faced on the road to success? Please share with us the issues a company in this field generally faces. We faced a lot of issues in the interaction. People in India think research is something very difficult and impossible to do, and we really have to work very hard to be able to deliver our thoughts on research. According to us, people just need complete dedication and good set of questions to do research. What are the values and factors that you attribute to, for your success? Yes, the values play a very major role for anybody’s success. In simple words, clients for us are no less than god, and we can do anything to make them feel our spaces as their homes. What is the greatest strength of WorkoLab? How is it helping to move forward with the future plans? The greatest strength of WorkoLab is the research hub that we run with all our co-working spaces. This has really changed the revenue and the financial model for us. The revenue from co workings is just 12 percent, which are making rest 88 percent comes from the research projects, patents, etc. that we are doing at our spaces. This is really helping us to get rent free spaces, and people are really eager to invest in our company.
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| January 2018 |
Clap Global: An Automated Platform Enabling International Travellers to Visit Local School Classrooms and have Eye-opening Conversations with Students
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he journey of Clap Global started around two years ago and ever since, the number of Clap students exposed to foreign cultures has grown by 900%. Today, the company has reached and collaborated with over 1000 Travellers, 100 countries, 239 classrooms, 78 schools and is situated in five Indian cities. Over 19,000 students have experienced a Clap Talk till date and the company would like to grow beyond this and reach students all over the world. Clap Global wants more countries talking to each other and not just by people in suits in diplomatic offices; they want people talking in homes, classrooms and public spaces. How it was Initiated Young minds are impressionable, and biases developed in childhood often take years to undo. Shirin Johari and Aarti Chhabria, the Co-Founders of Clap Global, learnt this lesson in their 20s, when they travelled a lot more outside India. As she befriended people from around the world, Shirin couldn’t help wonder, “Why must children wait to grow up before their stereotypes are questioned, before they discover new worlds, cultures and ways of thinking? What if foreign travellers could come into classrooms and share stories of their lives and dreams directly with children?” That is how, after 10 years of experience in advertising, innovation and communication design, Shirin conceptualized the idea of ‘Travellers in Classrooms’ as an automated platform. Aarti, meanwhile, built 10 years of experience in education and learning, as the founder of two companies creating innovative workshops for school children. Textbook learning, she realised, it was very limited, and she longed to introduce kids to diverse perspectives from around the world. Teachers, too, wanted more international exposure for children, but they didn't have a system or resources to
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do it regularly or effectively. As Shirin and Aarti discovered their shared dream and passion - bringing a global perspective to education to raise a more compassionate new generation - Clap was born. The Astounding Duet The Co-founders of Clap Global; Aarti Chhabria and Shirin Johari, have known each other since they were in preschool. As adults, they discovered a shared dream: Bringing a global perspective to education to raise a generation that is far more compassionate. Aarti is a serial entrepreneur, inspired educationist and a socially driven individual. She has founded three companies in the education sector and has been working closely with children, teachers and parents across India. In the past twelve years, Aarti has developed powerful connections and a deep understanding of children, educational institutions, parenting communities and brands directed at young families. An advertising creative, visual artist and entrepreneur, Shirin has spent the past 12 years innovating in social impact, advertising communication and design. Along the way, she has won more than 35 national and international awards for her work, including a Cannes Design Gold for creating The Hinglish Project. She has worked with JWT, Ogilvy & Mather, Creativeland Asia, DDB Mudra, and most recently served as a creative director with TBWA. Shirin believes that creative work has the potential to go beyond entertainment to something that solves a problem, enlightens and changes perceptions. How do we make a Difference Clap Global is a platform that enables a unique exchange of cultures by helping international travellers to visit local classrooms and engage in meaningful and often surprising conversations with students. | January 2018 |
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Aarti Chhabria & Shirin Johari, Co-Founders Children get to learn about different cultures through real stories and real people, and gradually develop an understanding of the world that is deeper than popular stereotypes. And travellers get to witness a slice of real life in a foreign land while making an actual difference to the lives of the people they meet. Clap Talks™ are curated on a simple digital platform: www.clapglobal.com Travellers create their profile and share their available dates. Schools create their profile and share their preferred classroom date and time slots. Through simple matching of available dates, Clap curates an eye-opening Talk. Every school that signs up with Clap is given a Clap Kit™ complete with conversation aids and flashcards to guide them through a talk. Similarly, travellers are given a presentation template that they can customize with their pictures and stories to help them prep for their Clap Talk. The curriculum tools packaged into the Kit cover a range of universal topics, such as culture, family, current events, interpersonal relationships, environment, gender, human rights and freedoms, justice, governance and even a Question-Ball game enabling an exciting and meaningful exchange of perspectives. This has been meticulously designed with Curriculum Innovators to raise the cultural and emotional intelligence of all the participants of a Clap Talk. Through Clap Global, students receive Clap Passports to document their Clap Talks. Both the students and the traveller get to write postcards for each other. Changing Needs of Learning Just all the challenges an absolute innovation brings. While the concept is accepted beautifully to understand its impact over longitudinal experience is key for Clap Global to succeed in transforming the mindset of teachers, students | January 2018 |
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Clap aims to build a whole new generation that is far more compassionate towards personal, social and cultural differences
and travelers. The Education industry is slow paced with few having the liberty and passion to experiment or rather adapt with changing needs of learning. Clap Global measures success by the number of students and travellers who have life altering experiences through Clap Talks. “When children learn to accept and celebrate differences in each other and people from the world, we think we succeeded. When travellers get an authentic local feel of our country through the eyes of children, it helps not just us, but the local tourism potential as well,” say Aarti & Shirin. Developing a Deeper Understanding of the World According to Clap Global, their strength is the growing need for humans to connect with people who have different experiences of life. Educators realise that a student’s cultural intelligence is as important as their IQ. They understand that for children to function effectively in a fastshrinking world, they need to be exposed to diverse perspectives and new ways of life. Through Clap, children get to learn about different cultures through real stories and real people, and gradually develop an understanding of the world that is deeper than popular stereotypes. Not all parents have the resources to send their children on elite educational tours and exchange programs. In fact, numbers indicate that less than 0.1 % of students can actually afford an international exchange program. What’s more, even the ones who can go abroad, are exposed to only one foreign culture in a year. But if each student in a school participates in at least 6 Clap Talks, a year, then from the age of 3 to 15, she will gain exposure to over 72 different cultures from around the world!
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CNB: Building Business with Efcient Shipping Logistics
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echnology provider in the Real Time Information space CNB is a pioneer in the business of tracking containers movement at container freight stations and inland container depots. It has developed a unique and cost effective solution, HAWK, to manage and plan a container yard in real time using their Internet of Things (IoT) platform. It provides smart, reliable and sustainable quality of products world-wide. CNB is a Bengaluru-based hardware-software product company focusing on container shipping logistics industry. It aims to be the catalyst to solve the problems in the port and shipping industry using realtime information to make it more efficient, visible and safe. Pioneers Leading the Way Rajesh Kumar and Nitin Sirohi are the co-founders and students hailed from IIT Kanpur bringing together the wealth of experience in varied areas ranging from hardware and software product development to software services and consulting. Rajesh Kumar is a recognized expert in RFID services and solutions. He is responsible for organization’s channels, alliance initiatives, market positioning, product marketing, strategic partnerships, product management and branding client relationships. Nitin Sirohi is in control for product development and new technology initiatives at CNB. His sharp business acumen and several years of experience in designing reliable, secure solutions and architecting complex solutions have ensured unmatched service experience to CNB customers. They believe that it is the company’s strategic position in the value chain, extensive technology, innovative power and understanding of domain and processes that differentiate CNB from the other market participants in the industry. CNB is involved in providing products and solutions that enable real-time management of
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assets, objects, and resources. Unique Services The product “Hawk” provides real-time container management and planning solution for Ports and Yards using CNB’s IOT infrastructure. It helps customers to make their yards pedestrian-free otherwise about 40-50 people would be moving around the yard for different activities. It has served some major brands such as Ameya, CMA-CGM, APM Terminals, Adani, Gateway Rail, Transworld, Balmer Lawrie, Hind Terminals and many more. CNB is a focused company dedicated to transform the complete shipping logistic domain using the real time automated information. The Hawk makes it Easy to Track The hardware-software company came up with an idea to develop an IoT based solution so that all the operational information is captured error-free and without any manual intervention. To use that data and to plan the complete yard to make it efficient- Hawk was introduced. It changed the way the logistics work in ports and shipping yards and provided real-time visibility to every action that happens inside the yard. It is used for managing the complete yard by recording all the activities happening inside a container yard in a fully automatic manner. There are no manual interventions in recording these data and this is why it is error free. Real-Time Management of the resources at a location and in the transit helps in increasing the visibility of enterprise resources resulting in significant increase in revenue, efficiency, and productivity. Real-Time Tracking Systems are primarily based on Global Positioning System, networks of some industrial sensors and Radio Frequency Identifications technologies where each technology | January 2018 |
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Bringing Safety, Efciency and visibility to container logistics
component brings a significant aspect to locate an asset, object or resource in a four- dimensional space-time coordinate
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Rajesh Kumar & Nitin Sirohi, Co-founders
which poised them to bring great changes in the industry. It also keeps adding a barrier to the competition. Achievement and Future Plans
The firm puts an RFID tag in the container with its details, and readers or sensors on the container handling equipment, like reach stackers, RTG, RMG, Side lifters etc.. This helps people handling the container depot track to the exact location of the container. The data on the exact container location is traced by the readers through software with the use of Wi-Fi or GPRS-based telecom networks. These containers usually stay in a yard for 10-15 days, while some stay for months. During a container’s life in the yard, it requires multiple movements and manual interventions. Overcoming Hurdles
Globally, the best efficiency achieved with which container is identified in the stack without any manual intervention is 95%. CNB’s solution identifies container with 100% efficiency, in the stack, without any manual intervention at 1/4th of the global pricing. The company covers about 15% of total container volume imported and exported in India and it has plans to venture into other emerging markets like China, Africa, and South America. Essentially CNB wants to be present at the initial leg of Import cycle and the last leg of the Export cycle to push efficiency in the complete supply chain logistic of any country.
CNB had been conceptualized to deliver innovative IoT based solution for Port and Containerized shipping industry. In the initial days when the company was developing realtime automation solution for various industries, it came as surprise to learn how such a complicated domain like shipping industry works on rudimentary technologies. There are so much of inefficiencies inbuilt for the lack of technologies and real-time information. To avoid and overcome these insufficiencies, development of an IoT based product was the remedy. Through this way, the operational information is captured error-free and without any manual intervention and uses that data to plan the complete yard to make it efficient. As the initial days were quite full of struggles from both technology stabilization front as well as adoption front, the organization achieved the success slowly when people started believing on the strength of the solution and adoption started happening. The greatest strength of CNB is the urge to innovate further and further. It is the trust that the organization has earned | January 2018 |
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Let’s assume that you’ve effectively taken place a startup. Scalability is the capability of a startup to elevate itself or, to place it more accurately. A scalable business can acclimate to a superior workload without compromising act or losing revenue. Can your company with zero dollars in annual profits form into a million dollar firm?
Not every business is graced to make it big. Some startups get off the ground without the same place, systems or people. Trying to nurture such businesses is same like trying to inflate a tractor tire with a bicycle pump. Investors will tell you that they love to put money into startups which are really scalable, and ready to rule. But what does that actually mean? Simply saying, it means that your business has the power to multiply the revenue with marginal incremental cost. Be ready to scale is when you have a confirmed product and a proven business class, about to swell to different geographies and markets. Here are some factors that will definitely take your business towards new heights:
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| January 2018 |
Grading Startup
Analyzing the fundamentals of Business Before starting any startup business, make sure your basic are fool proof and covers all the prospects of business by recognizing the scope of a core product in the market with a wide range of core users feedback and data. Evaluate the marketing channels with biggest scaling potential by testing with smaller budget first. Also, make sure you have the resources to scale. Seeks supplementary round of funding if necessary. You can’t worry about productivity while scaling, and the last thing you want is to run out of money. Skills to lead in business relationships As a successful magnate, you’ll have to effort closely with people and this is where it is decisive to be able to build great relationships with your team customer, shareholder, investor, supplier, and so on. You need to be able to communicate well to sell your vision of the future to investors, potential clients, team members with listening skill to make or break you as an entrepreneur. Make sure that you’re practiced at empathetic listening and active listening. You’ll find it hard to form a happy, committed team if you deal with people – staff, customers or suppliers – in a shabby way. The greater your EI, the simpler it will be for you to work with others. The good news is that you can progress your emotional intelligence. Some people are more remarkable in this area than others, but, fortunately, you can mug up and develop in these skills. Climbing the Market Hill How can you scale your business if no one knows about it? “Directing marketing is ..Not scalable” and “word of mouth doesn’t scale”. Your main focus should be on marketing, and scalability will follow you. On the Other hand, content marketing is one of the most scalable advanced approaches which has evergreen values and viral potential, creating it the growth- hack method of choice for most startups. Paying Attention on Social Media Every novel startup is in the public eye. Whatever goes on social media will be observed by the world. It’s the main concern in your startup days to watch your social media steps sensibly. Inexpert startups can’t afford to take an important PR hit with a social media flap. Experienced companies might be able to weather the storm, but your startup isn’t prepared for it. Scalability is about surviving, as much as it is about developing. If you hit a PR fiasco, you’re preventing your chance of survival and scalability. Building Powerful Sales Team If you hire the wrong people at the wrong time, you can set your startup back months, if not years. However, If you build a killer team by hiring right people at the right time you will hike your chance of improving your startup into a successful organization. One thing that a lot of new startups are attempting is “team incentives.” Companies are setting up base salaries for their employee and providing them a commission based on how their team implements. Things like team-incentives will help your staff capitalize hip the success of the people around them, which will result in them devoting in your success. Scalability is a mindset, too. It’s essential to have the right systems, people, processes, and plans. But you also need to dream big, to become big. Having a scalable business means that you are free to grow your dreams, make a lot of money, and have fun doing it. Once you get your mind and soul in the game, scalability of startup becomes way easier. “Scaling Business is not always about doing more—it’s often about doing less and focusing on what works.”
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Kallows Engineering India: A Superior Platform Changing theGame of Healthcare Industry
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t all started back in 2007 when two young, dynamic and vigorous entrepreneurs vision to start something of their own. Soon a mobile health based medical device company; Kallows Engineering India came into existence as one of the early software services clients National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) at Goa. It was required for both of them to have a company in order to pay the consulting fees and very soon they developed interest to manufacture Medical Devices and focused on Cardiology. In 2012, they both decided to be in India and develop the entire product from Ideation to Growth phase. And since 2013, their first sale till date has been a great learning curve. The company is now in the growth phase and will be surely well established in the next couple of years. The inspiration to start the company was; The Cardiology focus stemmed from the growing need for better cardiac care and technology solutions to assist Cardiologists, Hospitals, doctors in remote and urban areas, healthcare service providers, etc.
managing Director with more than 8 years of experience in product and research – working with some prestigious names such as Wipro GE Medical Systems, University of California at San Diego, and University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. He oversees the Administration, Sales and Marketing form his main core of day to day activities. He also participates in the new product development and upgrades of mobile applications for the ECG monitoring devices. Further he also assesses customer feedback and suggests modifications to the technical team. Kevin Scott Kreger is the Co-Founder and Technical Director with an extensive 25+ years of experience working in the field of Digital Signal Processing applied to Electronic hardware, Firmware, Software and Server – development, installations, maintenance, etc. He handles the technology, R&D, product development, and other related areas. He has worked with some prestigious names in USA such as GE Medical Systems, Allen Bradley (now Rockwell Automation), and has mentored and consulted for several advanced engineering projects. He has also been part of 5 granted patents.
The Vigorous Leaders of Kallows Delivering User Friendly and Quality Products Kallows was founded by Kevin Scott Kreger and Gajanan Satish Nagarsekar as both met while working for GE Healthcare in Milwaukee, WI, USA. They bonded well as friends to embark on a journey which would change their lives forever. Gajanan S. Nagarsekar is the Co-founder and
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“Quality of the product is the best way to put it. Once a customer has used our product and has had none or nonsignificant glitches, there is no reason for them to change or opt for other choices,” asserts Kallows.
| January 2018 |
Gajanan S. Nagarsekar & Kevin Scott Kreger, Co-Founder and Managing Director
Mobmon®12.0 is a tele-ecg solution by Kallows, which caters to the ECG machine market but also provides reporting services. Due to the flexibility the products offers, the company caters to a large group of users. Kallows have even customized software for clients if required. From the very beginning, Kallows have delivered a very robust, user friendly and quality consistent product, which helped them to be the market leaders in this segment.
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We believe that health is essential to happiness and medical care is a right for all humans
Journey has been very intensive for Mr. Nagarsekar and Mr. Kreger as founders and they enjoy the learning that the experience has offered them. Kallows have been awarded the following awards. 2015: Won 2nd place – Goa Chief Minister’s Technology award 2014: Won 2nd place at the India Innovation Growth Program conducted by D.S.T., Govt. of India & Lockheed Martin Corp., USA
Mounting the Competition In the growth stage, Kallows is observing a lot of competition as there are several companies in the market, which are copying their business models or even technology to enter the space. And Kallows have even identified a few even infringing on their patents. Kallows’ mantra for success is Quality of the product, Transparency with Customers, Passion for our product, Persistence to resolve customer issues if any at the earliest.
2013: Tech Sparks 30 – selection in top 30 innovative companies in India, event hosted by Sequoia India venture capital firm. 2011: 2nd Place in the Information Technology category at the Wisconsin Governors Business Plan Competition (participated as a Graduate student of UW Milwaukee, WI, USA)
The Strengths of Kallows “Indigenous design and manufacturing is our core strength. We also have an internal software and quality team, managing the products and making sure only the best is given to the customers. Due to these core strengths we are now offering a gamut of solutions and services to cover the entire space in Cardiology. By end of 2018, we should be covering at least 5 verticals in Cardiology if not more.” The Hall of Fame
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Kreate Konnect: Making Online Selling Process Faster, Smoother and Better “
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he biggest adventure you can take is to live the life of your dreams.” With the same determined dream, Piyush Jaidev and Abhishek Jain started Kreate Konnect in June 2015 with a small office in New Delhi and a team of 4 people. Today it has grown to 50+ clients and a team of 30 people sitting out of Delhi, Vadodara, and Bengaluru. Piyush and Abhishek met through a common friend and it was a casual conversation over coffee that led to the idea of Kreate Konnect. Over the next few months, they met frequently and continued to brainstorm on the concept. However, the idea to start didn’t pop up out of the blue but was being deliberated by both of them separately. Both Abhishek and Piyush had been running successful e-commerce businesses with Piyush’s expertise being the international e-tailing and Abhishek’s forte is in the domestic e-commerce market. Thus coming together and starting-up seemed like the most appropriate step. As online sellers both of them had identified various gaps in the market and weren’t able to find any comprehensive solution that assisted the e-commerce sellers. Unlike the US which is primarily a DIY (do-it-yourself) market India is a ‘Do-it-for-me’ market and thus a solution that blends the technology with a certain of services was the need of an hour. The e-commerce market had started to pick up in India and the marketplaces were on-boarding sellers left, right and center but none of the sellers properly understood the nuances of online selling. This was when they knew they have a business model in their hands. Fascinating Personalities of Kreate Konnect Piyush Jaidev – Co-founder & COO, comes from a diverse
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set of professional background spanning across ‘Legal Process Outsourcing’ and ‘social e-commerce/group buying’ industry. Having worked with various e-commerce startups such as Mydala, Taggle, etc. in their early days enables him to bring caution to the business and focus on unit economics and get the basics right. At Kreate Konnect, he is responsible for the holistic functioning of the processes within the company. He manages the client and marketplace communication and the technology in the company. Being a data analytics enthusiast, he is trying to develop multiple proprietary models at the company that would help the online sellers to efficiently manage their businesses. Abhishek Jain – Co-founder & CEO was a wealth manager at HSBC and DBS before he decided to venture out on his own. The E-commerce bug bit him in 2013 and stimulated him to start-up. Abhishek is the go-to guy and the problem solver at Kreate Konnect. He is also the aggressor and a very hard negotiator. At Kreate Konnect he dons multiple hats i.e. of CEO, chief marketer, and the brand guru. Leveraging Innovative Services Kreate Konnect is a ‘tech+services’ company that supports its clients in managing the entire process of an online business ranging from setting up of accounts on various marketplaces to getting the products delivered to the customer. Kreate Konnect is an end-to-end e-commerce management company that helps sellers to sell their products on various e-commerce marketplaces across domestic and International markets. Company’s in-house cloud based | January 2018 |
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We envision creating one of the biggest communities of internet entrepreneurs and create an ecosystem for them where they can trade and sell their products to every nook and corner of the world from anywhere
solution integrates with various marketplaces, warehousing companies, logistics providers and provides sellers everything they need to run their online business from a single dashboard. They also take great pride in proprietary data analytics models relying heavily on predictive analytics. At all times, Kreate Konnect is tracking around 35 data points pertaining to the seller side of the business. This allows them to help sellers with their supply chain management, sales forecasting, location based ad targeting, product pricing, etc. As of today, Kreate Konnect is managing 50+ clients with a client retention rate of around 85% which is one of the highest in the industry. Since its establishment, they have given importance to quality over quantity and thus have also chosen their clients after a thorough due diligence. One of the key aims, why they have been able to uphold long term relationships with clients, is because of their understanding of the functionality of e-commerce business on various marketplaces. Kreate Konnect’s work background as online sellers has aided them to continuously stay a step ahead of the competition. Imagine a scenario wherein you are learning on a daily basis and applying the same learnings to servicing your clients. The entire process is so dynamic and real-time that you continue to stay ahead of the curve.
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Abhishek Jain, Co-founder & CEO Piyush Jaidev, Co-founder & COO
work. Though, Kreate Konnect very sincerely believes that “We have a long way to go yet but their success till date can be attributed to their very strong value system that relies heavily on transparency, integrity and a desire to bring about a change. When you intend to disrupt an industry you have to keep a very long term view. At Kreate Konnect, they change the way online sellers manage their business. They intend to create multiple successful internet entrepreneurs and ensure that a single person company has the same degree of efficient processes as a multi team business.” Kreate Konnect’s greatest strength has been their ability to stay focused on the long term goal. They have never focused on the short term benefits even when they had investors knocking at their doors. Kreate Konnect recognized that, they are here for the long term and need to get their processes in place if they have to scale the business. They have spent the last 2 years doing exactly what they aimed for and today they can proudly say that they are in the truest sense of the word an end-to-end e-commerce management company that has established various successful online businesses spanning across various markets.
Forwarding Future Goals Kreate Konnect’s mantra has always been simple, which is to provide the level of service that you would expect yourself. They have made a conscious effort to have no office hierarchy and have weekly meetings, where to take inputs from each other and regularly apply them in their | January 2018 |
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Pentation Analytics: Insurance Analytics Suite: A One Stop Analytical Platform for Motor, Health, P&C, and Life Insurance
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ith an aim to develop Industry-sweep, predictive analytics applications using data from existing transaction systems, processes & practices for the enterprise, Insurance Analytics Suite, an Innovative Analytics Product from Pentation Analytics is a one stop analytical platform for Motor, Health, P & C, and Life Insurance Pentation Analytics was founded in August 2015, by seasoned financial services & technology entrepreneurs & is based out of Mumbai. In the successful journey of Analytics, Pentation witnessed a specified need of quick turnaround solutions, which could add value to the organization. This is the point where analytics had a stronger marriage with domain specialization, artificial intelligence and machine learning. Hence, Pentation Analytics was created and also marked the first time, i.e, the analytics company unbundled its offerings and focused heavily on domain knowledge assets. With the network of Product distribution Partnerships, Pentation is currently operating out of Asia and North America and has also targeted footprints for a global presence in the next two years. Remaining True to its Vision Being true to its vision of “Analytics for All”, Pentation Analytics has launched a ready to deploy product which democratizes “Analytics.” Pentation Analytics is in the Top 11 InsurTechs at Hartford InsurTech Hub for its coveted InsurTech Accelerator Program, wherein around 4000 companies had participated from amongst 96 countries at Hartford, which is known as the Insurance Capital of US and now, the Insurtech Capital as well. Pentation Analytics is able to intelligently look at the business needs and able to yield solutions through analytics
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and technology and also at very quick pace. For example, Pentation Analytics is the Big Data Analytics partner,of National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), an umbrella organization for all retail payments in India with the guidance and support of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Indian Banks Association (IBA) on an ongoing basis, leading to a successful synergy between the both. NPCI has 700 member banks associated with it, Central Bank and the Government of India, all have been a part in gaining advantages by this Big Data platform. Advanced analytical capabilities built for 20+ billion records and creating an ecosystem, which is Big Data.This project has been awarded as the “Most Admired Big Data Project“ by Kamikaze B2B Media in the country. The Exceptional Services and Solutions The fintech revolution, which began with start-ups, has disrupted the banking sector since a decade. “Insurtech” has now arrived with a bang. Technology led, data-led, intelligence-led processes and organisations specific to Insurance. Hence, Pentation Analytics chose to dig deep into this phenomenon to come up with quick turnaround solutions through quick big data solutions and analytical products. They say, “The inspiration behind this was more business domain people in analytics to understand the client needs. The Insurance Analytics Suite from Pentation Analytics is an innovative predictive analytics product which integrates into the core business function of retention and more customer value. The launch of Pentation Analytics is dramatically different because it is just not grounded in deploying human capital but it is about making greater number of mass product implementations with quick
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Our drive for innovation in analytics has given us the opportunity to work with some
Anirban Roy, Founder, Director & CEO turnaround solutions, which could add value to the organisation, rather than just allocating human resources.” The Skillful Management Team of Pentation Analytics The management of Pentation team is an eclectic mix of business, data sciences and technology. Mr.Anirban Roy, Founder, Director & CEO, a management graduate from IIM, Lucknow, has over 20 years of experience, majorly in Retail Insurance. Mr.Kamal Kishore Das, Founder, Director & COO, is an alumnus of IIM, Calcutta and IIT, Kharagpur with over 18 years of experience across analytics, financial services and supply chain. Dr. Pameet Singh heads the Data Sciences team and holds a Ph.D. from University of Maryland, Washington DC and is an IIT Kharagpur graduate. And Mr. Pradeep Kumar Shah, Founder and Director has 30+ years of experience across various kinds of insurance. Expert Offerings of Pentation Analytics Insurance Analytics Suite-Customer, Retention, Cross Sell & Claims.It is an Analytics Suite®, a onestop analytical platform for Motor, Health, P&C, and Life insurance. It uses predictive modeling for identifying trends from client data, risk assessment of non-renewal and determining the profitability of these policies on an individual level. The product is modular and ready to deploy. Incorporates machine learning,Natural Language Processing and Artificial Intelligence. Business Intelligence and optimization of tools. Enhancement of customer information. Big Data Analytics as a service linked/ as a precursor to product roll out. Work undertaken for the same is as follows: -Implementation of High-end Big Data platform for reporting and analytical use-cases. - Automated data ingestion and Data sanity checks. - Disaster Recovery setup for ensuring business continuity
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of the best players in the BFSI space
- Operations efficiency increase, Cost reduction of maintaining proprietary systems and internal business processes, and enabling of advanced use cases on Big Data for faster response time - Also, Advanced Analytics using machine learning and artificial intelligence on both sets of structured as well as unstructured data - Sticking at the Foreground of Advancements Pentation Analytics also tries to remain at the forefront of the advancements taking place around the world. Hence, their products are comparable with the latest trends happening across the world. This has led to Pentation Analytics recently making it to the Top 11 InsurTechs at Hartford InsurTech Hub for its coveted InsurTech Accelerator Program, wherein around 4000 companies had participated from amongst 96 countries. Our Innovative Analytics Product Insurance Analytics Suite was also one of the top three nominations for the Digital India Awards 2018. Pentation Analytics operates from different cities across Asia and USA.It also has a network of Partners. Sticking at the Foreground of Advancements Pentation Analytics also tries to remain at the forefront of the advancements taking place around the world. Hence, their products are comparable with the latest trends happening across the world. This has led to Pentation Analytics recently making it to the Top 11 InsurTechs at Hartford InsurTech Hub for its coveted InsurTech Accelerator Program, wherein around 4000 companies from 96 countries had applied. Also, the company has a network of Product distribution Partnerships with expansion in Asia & US. Pentation Analytics is able to intelligently look at the business need and transform them to solutions through analytics and technology and also at very quick pace.
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Robolab Technologies: A Perfect Platform to Explore, Learn and Build Ideas
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he most important aspect for any business is planning. It helps an organization chart a course for the achievement of its goals and Robolab is a perfect example for it. Robolab Technologies Pvt. Ltd. was officially incorporated on Friday the 13th September 2013. The team of Robolab had already started working on the business model and planned well before its establishment. For almost 5 months, the team of Robolab met several institutions in and around the region, but they got rejected for not having prior business experience. But as it is rightly said, “Never Lose Hope”, and they did not lose one, instead, they left their comfort zone and started approaching early majority institutions all over India with their solutions. The pool was large and it was needed for them to target somewhere and thus, they chose Andhra Pradesh and began approaching Professors and HoD’s of top colleges. Within two months of starting this exercise, they succeeded in breaking the ice. They got their first order from the Guru Nanak Institutions, Hyderabad. At the initial stage, all Robolab needed was the necessary momentum and that’s what the first order gave them. Since then, they have never looked back, and within a short period of 4 years, Robolab has reached 28 key institutions spread across 10 states in India and has collaborations with Indian Armed Forces and various Industries. An Idea to Accord Knowledge Robolab Technologies came into existence out of the rigorous efforts of its founders as an attempt to transform the Educational facilities in the country, provide an innovative platform to the students to show their skills and implement their ideas and create employment for the youth. Instead of taking up lucrative jobs, the founders chose to start a company. Having worked in the Robotics field for four years of their Engineering and being associated with the Robotics and Automation Laboratory- Robot Study
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Circle in COEP, Robolab Technologies was bound to happen. Having worked on a variety of projects, participating in various types of competitions and securing laurels for the Alma Mater at all levels, the founders decided to continue with the same zeal and impart the knowledge to the newcomers and other students. “We are grateful to be incubated under and supported by BHAU Institute of Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Leadership (BIEL), the Incubation center of the College of Engineering Pune (COEP).” The Creator of Robolab Born and brought up in Yavatmal District of Maharashtra state, Amol Gulhane is the Co-Founder and CEO of Robolab Technologies. He is a first generation entrepreneur and a Roboticist Shaping the Best Robotics and Automation Company. Amol has completed his B.Tech in Electronics and Telecommunication from Govt. College of Engineering, Pune (COEP). A roboticist, Amol has deep experience of designing and manufacturing complex and task specific industrial robots. He has a profound knowledge of educational and defense robots and is specialized in digital image processing, embedded programming, design analysis and optimization. With his entrepreneurial, management and technical skills and being an accomplished sports-person, he implements his unique ways to motivate the entire team and get the best out of people. Amol plays the most vital role in shaping Robolab. Amol advises to the budding entrepreneurs to be open for new ideas and other perspectives as many a times, We do not see the things as they are, We see them as We expect them to be.
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To develop an ecosystem which gives people access to technology, provide necessary resources, trainings and cultivate innovation by motivating people to solve real life challenges Cater to customer’s requirement to the fullest
Providing Exemplary Services
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Robolab is your very own, on campus, Center of Excellence in Robotics, Industrial Automation, and Internet of Things. Equipped with all the advanced technologies used in industries, it offers training courses consistent with the latest curricula and the industry requirements. Thus, functioning as the perfect platform for its users (students as well as teachers) to explore, learn, build and share their ideas.
Overpowering Challenges
Robolab believes in providing innovative and interactive training by industry experts. This empowers the trainees to manage the Robolab in future. Some of the primary product features include advanced state-of-the-art technical research facility within a campus, hands on practical experience along with required theory, consolidation of concepts, Industry-Institute Interaction, standard guidelines and essentials, training by industry experts, superior quality and advanced robot study platforms, and affordable excellence.
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Amol Gulhane, Co-Founder & CEO
The biggest challenge Robolab faced is the limited support mechanisms from the Government and Banks Institutions. They say, “Finding the right team who can share the same passion as the founders is the most challenging part.” So far Robolab has succeeded in that. The core team of Robolab consists of all Engineers. So the challenge for them was understand the money flow as only knowing the regular profit and loss statement of the business is not enough. Although it may appear that you are breaking even on paper, the situation can be entirely different. Bringing Out Innovations and Products Family members, Friends, Mentors from Bhau Institute and COEP who stood by Robolab during the testing times are the biggest strength of the company.
Making its Services and Products Better Robolab is taking every initiative to make its products and services better. They are walking that extra mile to make their customers completely satisfied with their services. The team of Robolab keeps on researching and inventing so that clients can get the best value for their money and a remarkable experience. Following are some of the best things that one can do to outpace their competitors: Ÿ Robotics and Tinkering Education Ÿ Technology solutions for defense, industrial, domestic and other social problems. Ÿ Innovations in Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Industrial Automation, and Internet of Things Ÿ Providing best products and services | January 2018 |
“The most important part of any company is its customers and your team. Both are equally important. You have to maintain a perfect balance between requirements and needs of your customers as well as your team, and Robolab does it flawlessly with pride,” says Amol Gulhane In the coming future, Robolab will be seen diversifying to different market segments of the education (Primary Schools to Post-Graduate Research Organisation), bringing out the innovations and products from the institutions to the market, and at least a 10 fold rise in the number of beneficiaries associated with Robolab. Increasing presence of technology and automation around the globe is calling Robolab for the beat times ahead.
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Chalk Talk
Not Just
Another Number Please
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rganizations believe that once they have a vision on track, meeting the company goals ought to be a cakewalk. But what if somewhere along the way, your driving force decides to take a back seat? Scott Carbonara, a dynamic leader once said “What you believe about employees comes out in how you treat them. And how you treat them ultimately determines how effectively you engage them.” And truly there have been many trends over a period of time.
The more we think about employee engagement, the more we realize that it is no longer a matter of self or choice. If you believe that people run an organization, keeping them engaged is important. Requisitions have come and gone, referrals have been passed to and fro, and recommendations have been sought far and wide. But one aspect we often tend to overlook, Rewards & Recognition. A crucial and defining factor that many organizations till date neglect. It matters a great deal, and organizations must put in more efforts to meet these silent requirements. Help Make the Routine Fun Why do you go to work? Why does anybody push themselves out of bed, make efforts to groom, to clean up, and hurry off to work; if they aren’t driven enough? If it’s not the money, then why agree to spend half of your day behind a closed cubicle? Why stick through the monotony where creativity has been asked to take a back seat right from the days of probation?
life! It helps an individual evolve at a personal level and cope with working smart. What Drives The Driving Force? Change is an ongoing process. With infinite possibilities and definite results. The ultimate goal is to build a formidable workforce. One that can successfully function without your overshadowing presence. There are certain aspects that can be contemplated while inculcating an amicable work culture – Breaking across stereotypical norms, overcoming geographical barriers, volatile age demographics and even gender biases. A culture that nurtures a sense of accountability amidst its people, will always cut across all organizations. Instilling A Sense Of Pride The key to efficient workplace productivity lies in retention with every individual performing his/ her best. It’s not something fancy, but the good old sense of stability. A secure job, the thriving presence of trust, and the flexibility to work. If people are not engaged at work, it brings down your organization’s productivity levels. It’s really that simple. Happier employees are more productive, more engaged and thus, stay longer. I once came across this powerful quote “Leaders who don’t listen will eventually be surrounded by people who have nothing to say.”
Consider chalking out an employee engagement strategy, even if you operate as a team of five. Not every organization is the same, and not every team will stay stagnant at five. (If Regular Rotation Leads to an All Rounder Impact you do, you need a reality check!) It is your internal The human brain prospers when challenged. If and when communication module with the existing people that helps life becomes a routine, the workplace productivity shouldn't set the pace for the future. And the role that people play links suffer. Once in a while, a puzzle should be welcomed. back to how you deal with them on a daily basis. Something as simple as re-doing a presentation pitch with a fresh perspective, or even scrounging for a new economical Imagine the feeling of having to come to work every day, not vendor option – Variety should always be the spice of work
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| January 2018 |
knowing why you do it! You may have an abusive boss, a salary that barely helps you stay afloat, or worse, the canteen food may be something you detest! Have you ever wondered what is that one thing that makes people want to stick around? While everybody says it’s a top driven series of micro culture led interventions that should do the trick, in my humble opinion, it is also essential that top-line managers who report to CEO’s, have the ability to let go while interacting with their subordinates. That said, to simply sum it up, there needs to exist transparency within the functioning of an organization. Identifying the goals of your employees and helping them achieve it, is a best practice that will help align their dedication towards achieving the company's goals. The best way to tackle a mind block that hinders productivity at the workplace is to indulge in an off-beat, detoxifying activity. Engaging the employee doesn't always have to be in the form of an offsite. Raise individuals who ask questions, encourage people who do not conform to the box, support those who refuse to bow down to a regressive environment that doesn’t allow room for innovation. Be a mentor, create a new generation of leaders. Listen to their needs, respect their opinions, give them ample opportunities to learn and explore. It’s always advisable to put your ‘People First’. You take care of them, and they, take care of the work. Simple right?
About the Author Mr. Asif Upadhye is the Director and Chief Fun Officer at Never Grow Up. He has a work experience in Marketing & Product Management of Financial products; having worked across business lines in companies like HDFC Ltd (Brand Communications), HSBC Bank and Barclays Bank PLC. | January 2018 |
Mr. Asif Upadhye Director
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SmartVizX: The Creator of Interactive and Futuristic Environments
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eople often relate Virtual Reality (VR) to gaming and headsets. However, VR is a technology that has a real business value as well. Today, more and more businesses are coming with newer and innovative techniques to incorporate VR into their routine business processes and are trying to make their operations more productive and efficient. SmartVizX is one such Virtual Reality Solutions Company that is disrupting traditional passive and static design visualization methodologies by creating high quality Virtual Reality based across platform solutions that are immersive, interactive and engaging. SmartVizX Overview Founded in February 2015, SmartVizX helps businesses achieve greater customer engagement by harnessing the potential of gamification for everyday decision making. The VR solutions of the company helps buyers buy better, sellers sell better & businesses conduct business better. Application of the company’s solutions focuses firmly on the Architecture, Engineering and Construction industry (AEC). SmartVizX has expanded across geographies in the last couple of years and have delivered VR solutions in US, Dubai and South Africa. Beyond the VR Services, SmartVizX is working on a first-of-its-kind virtual realitybased design platform for the AEC ecosystem. How it Started The founders of SmartVizX, Gautam and Tithi Tewari are both architects and have held senior leadership positions in some of the largest design firms in the world prior to founding SmartVizX. In their respective professional journeys of nearly 20 years each, one of the consistent sources of struggle for both of them was the state of technology in the profession especially in terms of design visualization and collaboration. The amount of waste – time, cost and effort – that their industry generated was the
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problem they wished to solve. They were confident that if there was a technology that could help the process of design visualization become interactive, immersive and engaging; many problems could be solved. Virtual Reality offered hope and they started building prototypes using it. Once the founders took the early prototypes to the market for early feedback, the excitement generated was immense. Every connection who tested these prototypes wanted a solution for them. This is how the SmartVizX journey started. The Creative Duo Gautam Tewari, Founder & Director of SmartVizX is an architect with a Master’s Degree in Construction Management from UNSW. Gautam adds exceptional project implementation knowledge to the SmartVizX team. Having successfully led multiple teams on projects of varying scale and complexities, Gautam was one of pioneers in Design and Build method of project delivery in India. Focusing and specialising in delivering workplace projects over sixteen years, he has worked with international and local clients putting together best in class facilities in the right time and cost. Gautam has also been associated with developing new tech, strategies and initiatives for improving the process of Design and Build to help maximize value for clients. His constant pursuit of excellence, the ability to challenge status quo, helps him to consistently meet and even exceed the set objectives for any business. Tithi Tewari, Founder & MD of SmartVizX is responsible for successfully setting up and leading multiple businesses in the field of architecture and design. A graduate in architecture from CEPT, Ahmedabad; Tithi set up her own design practice which she managed successfully. Tithi has also been responsible for leading two immensely successful international design practices. In addition to her architectural degree, Tithi also has successfully completed | January 2018 |
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Tithi Tewari, Founder & MD highly reputed certification programs from Harvard Business School and INSEAD in Managing Professional Service Firms in India and Leadership Excellence through Achievement and Practice respectively. Tithi has successfully led the services business at SmartVizX. The leadership and sales skills that Tithi brings to the team makes them confident of their product reaching out to a number of customers they aim for. Maintaining Long-term Relationship with Clients SmartVizX combines design visualisation with gaming technologies to create cross-platform tools that enables users to immerse themselves in the environment they wish to engage with and eventually own. They say, “We are truly blessed to have some of the best thinkers and thought leaders of the fraternity as our customers. Most of our customers tend to immediately see the value our solutions bring to their existing processes. Beyond the delivery of solutions, we constantly educate the clients on the new developments in VR through one on one meetings and through digital and social media-based campaigns which have proved very effective.” Focusing on Internal Training and Development Plans According to SmartVizX, the key challenge remains around educating the potential buyers on VR and its benefits. Once the user understands the real value of VR, the sales process and cycles become easier and shorter. Quality resources are the next big challenge. At SmartVizX, their audience is global and quality of delivery is of paramount importance, which is a key alignment required from production teams. Focused Internal training and development plans have helped the company in educating and retaining their current talent pool and also attract new talent. | January 2018 |
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We transform elements of the real world into a virtual one and a virtual world into a real one
Making a Meaningful Journey The credibility that Gautam and Tithi have been able to build for themselves being in the profession of 20 years respectively helped SmartVizX grow. Innovation, attention to detail, and customer focus combined with passion and integrity has significantly contributed in making the SmartVizX’s journey a meaningful one. Further, Virtual Reality is definitely a great technology for the AEC industry. It makes the whole process of visualisation interactive, immersive and engaging especially in the case of projects under development. As the devices become cheaper and the quality has improved, it now makes a lot of sense to show around a property or a design in VR to a potential customer. It is convenient and highly accurate representation of a property. Given the photo realistic nature of SmartVizX product and its high level of interactivity with gaming techniques, SmartVizX can make customers feel as if they are inside an actual property. This has huge ramifications for the industry. It can help in creating high quality analytical tools to predict customer behavior, it can re-define property search just like property websites do and can help create a lot more transparency between the buyer and the seller. The Exceptional Strength of SmartVizX Without doubt, the exceptional strength of SmartVizX has been the founders’ experience, reputation and industry connects. Their experiences have helped the founders solve a problem that resonates with all the potential buyers of their solutions. The connects and credibility enables customers access to the productized services that most new companies tend to get after 2 to 3 years of being in the market.
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Investoscope
The Perks of Investing in a Startup in India
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he oldest in-operation company in the world is a hot springs hotel named Nisiyama Onsen Keiunkan in Japan, which has been dated back to 705. The second oldest also comes from Japan, which is another hot springs hotel named, Hoshi Ryokan, founded in 718. This does not come as a surprise that an old country with an old economy is home to a huge number of old businesses. However, these ancient business houses have something in common with the startups in India today. Most of these companies have been initiated with the financial backing of a family member or friends, similar to the modern day startups of India. The startups in India are currently going through a honeymoon phase with the government giving all the backing they would require in the form of the Startup India campaign that was launched on 16 January, 2016. Currently India has more than 19,000 technology-enabled startups, led by consumer internet and financial services startups. As per reports, Indian startups had successfully raised $3.5 billion in funding in the first half of 2015 and the number of active investors in India increased from 220 in 2014 to 490 in 2015. As per IPO Playbook, people could be million dollars richer just from a $10,000 investment in Amazon, Dell, Apple or Microsoft at the time when their IPOs were issued. For the few lucky ones who had invested in these companies before they went on the IPO, the sky is their limit now. So when an angel investor invested money into a startup, s/he had bought a specific percentage of the ownership of the company. This way the investor gets a certain amount of shares that represents a mutually agreed percentage of all the outstanding shares of the company. Through this, the company and the investor decide upon the valuation of the company through their sheer persistence (the higher the value of the company, the higher the value of their shares). Coming back to India, the Startup India campaign seems very promising with initiatives such as self-certification, which would reduce the regulatory burden on startups. Other benefits include tax exemption on the profit for the initial 3 years, with no inspections. Norms for public procurement have been relaxed along with the comfort of easier patent filing (80% discount on patent application). The government has also set up a corpus fund of INR 100-billion for SEBI registered VC funds over a period of four years. Other worthy mentions include incubation and R&D centres (for converting innovative ideas into profitable business), an online portal for easy registration process and the launch of the India Aspiration Fund and Atal Innovation Mission (an entrepreneurial network to boost creativity and to honour innovation). For the investors, they have to mind the fact that under the Startup India campaign, a company is tagged as a startup, if the company has been registered or incorporated in India for not more than five years. This company should not have an annual turnover of more than INR 250 million in any preceding financial year. This ‘startup’ should be working towards innovation, development, deployment or commercialization of new or significantly improved products, processes or services driven by technology or intellectual property that will create or add value for customers or workflow. Exclusions include those entities that have been formed by splitting up or by reconstruction of an existing business. The Startup India Action Plan further defines a startup as those companies that are recommended by a Government approved incubator or a SEBI approved investor.
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| January 2018 |
Having a patent in connection with its business would act as a shot in the arm for a startup image. Looking at the existing setup, Indian administrative infrastructure is known for lethargy. India, with a population of over a billion and with a gross national income of $1,590, stands at 155 when it comes to ease of starting a business. The Indian Government is currently working on removing all this by introducing certain levy in the entire setup and operation process. The Government is banking heavily on SMEs and through this; startups in the manufacturing sector are getting a huge boost under the Make in India campaign. Now when the ball is in the investors’ court, they need to be really slick about it. Always focus on creating a win-win situation (the secret to stability). They can buy the shares with all the wit under their disposal, but while doing so, they need to come into a legal agreement for a certain amount of RoI in a certain time period. A novice in such circumstances would have to understand that the companies’ business plan would return them their desired number (RoI) in a reasonable time period which should comfortably fit into the exit strategy of the novice investor. At some instances, it has been observed that a penalty clause is also inculcated into the agreement if the investor does not achieve his/her preset milestones. Being crude and shrewd is the key, but not all the time. Investing in startups is an art with no predefined textbook and with no set formulas. It is all based on deep insight and strong guts. Today, there are many investing platforms that help a novice to learn and become proficient without going through the initial scares that usually follows in any business investment.
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Startup Café Digital: Solving Business Challenges Through Effective Inbound Marketing
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n a rapidly changing business landscape, the need to measure digital marketing success as efficiently as possible has increased in importance more than ever before. Every digital marketing tool available has some means of measuring the efforts. Not only measurable metrics but also drawing other data is possible and available in real-time. The greater need is to analyze this data as evidence to success of the digital marketing investment. Startup Cafe Digital was started back in 2015 with an ambition to help small businesses generate more website traffic and increase conversions through effective inbound marketing. At the time of its inception, Sandeep was working with a team of freelancers, but once Startup Café Digital started engaging more clients, he started recruiting a team of digital marketers. Now, the company has a global clientele with majority of clients scattered across the US, Singapore, and India. Grown from a small agency to a formidable inbound agency, Startup Café Digital has clients across the world. With time, they also realized that the need for cost effective digital marketing was not just restricted to the startup community, but in well-established businesses as well. They put all their efforts to satisfy their clients’ requirements and make their businesses successful. The company’s success is driven by its commitment to helping businesses get the best results through digital marketing.
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An Idea of Digital Revolution While working with many firms Sandeep realized that there were lots of potential customers in the startup community who were not getting the marketing results they were expecting. So he decided to tap into this market and cater mostly to early-stage startups that were in desperate need of marketing, but didn’t have the budget to hire marketing resources or engage expensive agencies. The basic packages featured on the company’s website are very popular with early-stage entrepreneurs and are designed specifically to cater to their marketing needs. Using Startup Cafe’s services, businesses grow their website traffic, generate qualified leads, create conversion-optimized content, or just gain deeper insights on their customers. In other words, they can find everything they need to launch effective marketing campaigns at incredibly affordable prices. Creative Persona of Startup Café Digital Sandeep Mallya is the Founder & CEO of Startup Cafe Digital. Prior to founding of Startup Cafe Digital in 2015, Sandeep worked in companies such as the Times Group, Hindustan Times, and 24/7 Inc. in sales and marketing roles. Sandeep founded and writes for 99signals.com - a popular inbound marketing and SEO blog with a community of more than 50,000 members. He is also an active member of the startup community in Bangalore and has worked closely | January 2018 |
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From strategy to design to consulting, we optimize digital marketing campaigns in a unique way for the benet of your brand, your business, and your customers
with several early-stage entrepreneurs, helping them craft successful inbound marketing campaigns. Exceptional Services and Strategies As one of the well-known agencies in Bangalore, Startup Cafe Digital delivers a whole suite of inbound marketing services including social media marketing, SEO, content marketing, email marketing, digital advertising, blogging, and web analytics. Their solutions are designed to solve the clients’ marketing challenges and deliver measurable results. Based on the client’s requirements and goals, the company initiates the process by first auditing the client organization’s existing social media presence, SEO, PPC, and analytics processes, on the basis of which, they strategize and execute an effective inbound marketing plan. They understand the value of their clients’ time and budget. After careful evaluation of the requirement, they present a plan based on research and experience, but remain agile, making recommendations and updates based on data. This approach brings them to work with clients to achieve desired goals, whether that’s increased brand awareness, better qualified leads, or a reduced cost of customer acquisition. Growth and Future Plans Speaking of growth, Startup Café Digital has had a great 2017 and they’ve performed beyond their expectations. Their revenues have almost tripled and the financial year isn’t even over yet. They were able to expand their clientele, and acquire new clients such as IndiQube, Wenger and Watson, Makana Charters, CasaOne, KNOLSKAPE, as
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Sandeep Mallya, Founder & CEO
well as retain most of the clients they acquired in the past 2 years. This year, the agency plans to expand its geographical reach and continue evolving its services with the changing digital landscape. Sandeep describes the agency’s success by asserting, “I’d attribute our success to our growth mindset. Growth mindset thrives on challenge and sees failure as a springboard for growth and for stretching our existing abilities. Since starting our agency, we’ve faced several challenges along the way. And we’ve always embraced these challenges head-on and recognized them as opportunities to master new skills and better ourselves as inbound marketing solution providers.” He adds, “I’m also a firm believer in the Lean Startup methodology and believe that the only way to win is to learn faster than anyone else. We have tried to implement the Build-Measure-Learn feedback loop every step of the way. Watching our clients grow is what motivates us to keep doing what we do. The scope of what digital marketing can accomplish is limitless, and this is something that we always keep in mind to give our clients truly awesome results. We practice what we preach!” The team devotes an extensive amount of time optimizing their presence in search engines for all the relevant keywords as well as building high-quality backlinks to have an edge over competition. In addition to this, Startup Café Digital has done a lot of work around writing blog posts, publishing eBooks, designing insightful infographics, sending email updates and weekly newsletters to its subscribers, creating YouTube videos, showcasing case studies on SlideShare, and of course, maintaining a robust presence on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
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Vaidam Health: An Online One-Stop Platform for Medical Travellers
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he current worth of Indian health industry is 100 billion dollars and will predict a massive growth in the next 2 years. Also, there is a possibility of humongous statistical growth which has materialized due to technological advancement in the infrastructure of hospitals along with the superior expertise of doctors who can provide any medical treatment at costs that comfortably falls under ones budget. Thus, India has emerged as a preferred destination for medical travellers. But on looking closely, the industry of medical value travel in the country lies fragmented with no proper structure. Vaidam Health is a Delhi/ NCR based service, connecting travellers to accredited hospitals, specialists and doctors across India. The Journey of Vaidam Health Starting from the scratch on January 2016 by Manish Chandra and Pankaj Chandna, Vaidam Health is a medical travel assistant company, researching and connecting International patients with doctors and hospitals in India for treatment at affordable prices. Along with that the company also offers concierge to travelling patients and companion. At present, Vaidam Health is maintaining an intricate network of about 100 hospitals well accredited by NABH, NABL and JCI, across all the metropolitan cities of Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Ahmedabad including Delhi NCR where it is headquartered and have extended its assistance to patients from over 45 countries across the world which includes African countries, CIS countries, countries of the middle east and far flung island
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countries like Fiji, Samoa Islands, Comoros Islands and others. The Leaders of Vaidam Health Possessing the impetus to venture on a new journey, alumni of IIM, Manish Chandra and Pankaj Chandna, CoFounders of Vaidam Health opted out of the rat race. With over 15 years of experience on Internet platforms, Manish Chandra oversees product, technology and digital marketing. Prior to starting Vaidam, he was Assistant Vice-president, Product Management, at ShopClues.com, one of India's largest e-commerce companies. On the other hand, Pankaj Chandna looks after Business Development, Patient, Hospital and Doctors Relations. He was the Vice-president of Sales for India’s leading doctor-connect platform, Lybrate. Having helped hospitals in the US to increase their patient care facility, Pankaj has also worked with private and government health institutions in several countries including India, Singapore, Thailand, US, Chile and the South Africa. Providing a Clearer Picture to the Medical Travellers The significance of medical travel facilitators in the industry lies in providing extensive guidance to patients travelling from one country to other. A limited knowledge regarding healthcare facilities and about the country in general makes a way for confusion and helplessness. It has to be understood that when a patient travels outside one’s country, he or she is looking for fast, affordable and quality treatment. The highly economic prices along with the
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Vaidam will nd you the best, hassle free treatment at prices you can afford, so that you can focus only on getting better
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Manish Chandra & Pankaj Chandna, Co-founders absence of waiting lists compel medical tourists to throng in the country. Therefore, the functionality of Vaidam lies in sweeping the clouds away to provide a clearer picture to the medical travellers.
hospitals, we also have a patient relationship network team that ensures consultations, travel plans and all other requirements till the patient flies back to his or her own country”, asserts Pankaj.
The online platform goes beyond the expected functional criteria of finding suitable doctors and hospitals based on their ailment sand strives to cater to other nuances of visa, accommodation, treatment plan and cost from the time patients reach out to them. Receiving more than 20,000 queries on treatment and travel information, Vaidam has managed cases for orthopedic and joint replacement, cardiac surgeries, spine, neurology, cancer, transplants, general surgery, and IVF to cosmetic treatments.
The Future of Vaidam Health Flexing its wings wide, Vaidam is striving to gain the global prominence concentrating on enriching their online platform so as to make it suitable for all readers and visitors comfortable in various languages. At the moment, Russian, Arabic and French have been installed as one of the UI features in the website.
Furnishing Right Guidance to Find Right Treatment Vaidam Health carefully selects all of the hospitals and doctors. They talk, visit, and collect pictures, stories and descriptions that will be useful to the patients. They also provide the medical travellers with 5 star services, whether they are providing them with treatment, an opinion from one of the doctors on their panel or simply with relevant information. “We started to scuttle and explore the industry with an aim to provide a platform to international patients where they can be guided thoroughly to find the right treatment. So, instead of testimonies from close acquaintances, patients can now go through and rely on relevant information and data regarding the healthcare centers, doctors and the treatments they seek in India from a single source”, asserted Manish. “Along with a comprehensive cost calculator of treatments installed in the website, detailed profiles of doctors and | January 2018 |
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Expert Insights
Opportunities & Challenges in Managing E – Governance Projects Sudhir Bahuguna CEO & MD Vedang Consultancy Service Pvt Ltd
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here are many great inventions, every one of them important for its time, but the Internet is the greatest invention of our time. The Internet is not only providing an enormous amount of information, but deeply impacting our day to day activities and without Internet life is unimaginable. So after testing benefits of IT in personal uses now citizens are looking for similar on line efficient services from a Government department. So with Increasing demands from citizen for transparent services in administration, the Government do not have any other choice except to improve their delivery process and organization efficiencies by adopting E- Governance tools. All over the Globe, Federal governments are taking big initiatives for E-Governance These organizations are also understanding the advantages of E-governance like improved access to services, reduced operational costs, enhanced knowledge management and improving coordination between various government agencies Single window clearance is one of the outcomes of these initiatives Later or sooner E – Governance will become a performance barometer of each government in economic, political and administrative functioning. But where exactly India stand today in terms of adopting E- Governance?
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Gartner had estimated $ 7 Billion IT Projects in India in various Government agencies for year 2016, whereas USA had incurred $ 75 Billion in 2014 alone. Digital India campaign launched by the Government of India is right step to ensure that Government services are made available to citizens electronically or by making the country digitally empowered in the field of delivery of services digitally. Government of India is focused & taken the various E - Governance initiatives like Digital Locker, e-education, e-health, e-sign, e-Hospital, National heath portal, National Scholarship Portal, e-Sampark and many more. DIPP is also encouraging & guiding State government(s) to improve ease of doing business ranking based on the IT enabled services offered to investors But if we go to any State Government department specially responsible for various services to the citizen, business or Industry, we can see tremendous opportunities to induct E – Governance tools for transparent, accountable & efficient services on delivery front and efficient in-house working as well. | January 2018 |
So opportunities are huge in India i.e. hundreds of billions of dollars but challenges are too many! Challenges: Contract Standardization: Most of the government tenders and contracts are one sided in favour of Government resulting high risk project cost. Government should adopt standard & balanced bid conditions to encourage more & more participations from vendors Emphasizes on Software development: Most of the government departments still insist for a long cycle of software development and resist to induct off the shelf product In these contracts, the government bears all the risk while vendors gain access to an unlimited source of revenue from taxpayer money However, due to lack of accountability, failure of government projects often go unnoticed. No Project Management Office (PMO): Most of the government organizations, projects are being executed without having a dedicated PMO. So successes of the project always depends on vendor’s project management skill. Lack of Ownership: Most of the projects are top down so down the line no one owns the project and waiting to fail so that they keep on working the way they are Lack of business incentives: IT projects in the private sector are initiated to take competitive advantage and personal preferences and political considerations play a negligible role in decisions, but this is not the case for government’s IT projects. Political consideration may play a more salient role when planning to start a project Even project under implementation faces stiff resistance whenever decision maker is transferred and new incumbent start challenging decision taken by his predecessor Multiple stakeholders: Due to the complex and interconnected nature of the government, even small projects have multiple stakeholders across different agencies so bringing them in to same page is always challenge. Change Management Even various on-going State Government Projects have not given enough importance to IT. One example, I can quote of State Telangana Water supply project. They are laying more than 1.2 Lacs KM of pipeline to supply drinking water to each any every household. They could have easily gone for Smart Water Grid for reduction &
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accounting of Water losses but due to old theory of project implementation and contactors- Politician lobby they have backed out without realizing that they are harming not this generation but future generation too Since government setup is used to work in a certain manner, so managing changes in process, working and culture is a big issue to address Legacy Hardcopy data: One of the biggest challenge is how to handle legacy data ranging from 50 years old or so. Data is either in very bad shape or not traceable Fear from transparent process: Any IT systems bring transparency & accountability into system, eliminates chances of corruption & reduces monopoly. Present working style of government machinery discourages the transparency Competency Building: Most of the state government departments do not have 1:1 ratio of PC, E- mail ID & Employee so unless employees are provided PC’s any IT project bound to fail Lack of awareness among employee & Stake holder’s Employee & public need to be trained for using the ICT resources, and at the same time they should be motivated and educated about the importance of using e-government tools Than most important issue in implementing successful e-government is the citizens’ acceptance and usage. The citizens also need to be trained and educated to use the e-portal services available in the various departments Streamlining decision-making processes: Multiple layers of decision-making and lack of accountability is also a hindrance in the implementation of E- Governance projects. No proper authorities are granted at a lower level for process re-engineering leading to changes in policies etc. However, if vendor is proactive in addressing the above points jointly with Government agencies than these challenges can be met & addressed easily. With a proactive approach, persuasions and team work, Vedang Consultancy is able to overcome such challenges and successfully implementing various E-Governance Projects in record times.
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Varutra Consulting: Offering Specialized Security Services with Novelty and Ingenuity
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CERT-In qualified IT Security Auditing organization, Varutra Consulting, has clientele from India to Singapore, HongKong, Middle East, North America and Australia. Currently, they are focusing on expanding their presence in India. The organization started their voyage without any explicit investment. All the profit gained from their first project was invested towards company’s expansion. The organization understands and appreciates their client’s trust and their references which today have made them a renewed consulting organization. Working with a diverse range of companies from the fields of Technology, BFSI, Manufacturing, Pharmaceuticals, Telecommunications to government organizations and many more, enables Varutra to allocate the best suited, experienced and most innate-talented team member to each client – assuring a highest level of service and excellence in every delivery. Their customer-centric approach allows them to provide security solutions that empower their clients and enable them to integrate security into their business effectively. High professional ethics, integrity, consistency, commitment, efficiency, and respect are the core values of the organization. Varutra has a proficient technical leadership that has the vision, superior technical competence, and the desire to excel and achieve the highest level of technical excellence. This technical leadership is the key factor behind Varutra’s success. Various endeavors are undertaken to ensure and maintain technical excellence Varutra follows technical standards as an integral part of all processes and practices. Moreover, continuous research is an integral part of Vautra’s philosophy; they believe that being at the forefront of research delivers the level of excellence in service that Varutra offers. With every other product, they claim to be innovative, path-breaking, and ingenious with a strong research-oriented approach. The Protagonist of Varutra Kishor Sonawane has Founded Varutra Consulting to offer
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customized IT Security services and trainings, which accomplishes client organization’s security needs in a sensible and thoughtful manner. He has completed his Master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Pune. He has nearly two decades of experience in IT Security and specializes in Penetration Testing, Network Security Assessment, Web and Mobile Application Security Assessment to Social Engineering activities and has been speaker in training of Information Security conferences. Kishor is responsible for managing, framing and executing long-term business strategies. He leads the technology strategy and under his technical leadership, Varutra has achieved excellence in the research area and development of innovative products. Kishor asserts, “Varutra is well poised to address today’s and tomorrow’s IT Security concerns of organizations by focusing on providing technical expertise in security testing services, secure application development, InfoSec awareness and training which will help in addressing the core issues of information security.” Proffering Exclusive Products and Services Information Security Services: The organization is delivering four types of security program such as Mobile Security, Infrastructure Security, Application Security and IS Compliance Audit. Penetration Testing, Device Forensics, Source Code Review, MDM Testing, BYOD Audit comes under the Mobile Security Program. The Vulnerability Assessment, Network Architecture Security Review, Cloud Security Testing, Wireless Security Assessment, Penetration Testing, Device Configuration Review, Endpoint Security Audit are included in Infrastructure Security. The Application Penetration Testing, Secure SDLC Consultancy, Secure Code Analysis, Security Audit comes under Application Security Program and the last security program is IS Compliance Audit, which handling ISMS Health-Check Audit, Physical Security Audit, PCI-DSS Health-Check Audit and IT Security Audits.
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With a dedicated, committed and focused team, we are expanding our horizons to every section of Information Security Industry
Information Security Trainings CEH Training and Certification - The organization is proffering Training Workshops for Mobile Hacking, Network Penetration Testing, Application Security Testing, Secure Code Review, ISMS Awareness Training, and VSecure Ethical Hacking Workshop. Secure Development Workshops - VSecure Mobile Application Development for Android and iOS, VSecure Web Application Development for JAVA, NET, PHP. Moreover, the organization is offering Corporate Trainings and Workshops for Secure Coding on most of the development technologies. Managed Security Services Varutra offers highly reliable Managed Security Services through consistent and effective monitoring and management of security devices and systems. Varutra MSS delivers real-time threat monitoring and analysis to minimize any impact on business operations and reduce the overall security risk to help organizations in improving the business continuity and enhance the efficiency of the security operations. Mobile Security Products MASTS: Mobile Application Security Testing Suite is a patent pending (No. 201621005110 and 201621005111) product developed at Varutra from its extensive research and experience gain into Mobility and Applications Security. The idea of MASTS was engineered with an aim to create an easy to use and intelligent automated solution, which simulates manual security testing as closely as possible. It reduces manual efforts, false positives and ensures effective testing results with minimal timelines. MVD: Mobile Vulnerability Database, a unique place to know about vulnerabilities reported worldwide for Mobile Platforms. MVD provides an easy to use a web interface to Search Vulnerabilities by Title, Version, KVID and CVE ID.
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Kishor Sonawane, Founder
OWASP KALP: OWASP KALP is a contribution from Varutra to the InfoSec community. OWASP KALP Mobile Project is for the users around the world who want to view the OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities, download the Top 10 list on their mobile device, and email it. This is light weight information of OWASP Top 10 list, Cheat Sheets as well as Prevention Cheat Sheets created from the OWASP site. Reaching New Heights by tackling Obstacles The major challenge that Varutra faced was in building a talented team by finding and hiring the best talent who understand Startup’s business environment and are ready to take up challenges in their career. Sometimes it becomes really difficult to find such resources, especially in the critical Information Security industry, where everyone is looking for the same type of technology skills. In general, the companies get a number of resources with profiles matching their requirements but a very less number of them are focused, motivated and dedicated professionals, who are essential for any organization. Naturally, competition in InfoSec industry is fierce, as virtually Varutra competes with every other organization with near about similar kind of services and product that they offer. It ranges from startups to the large enterprises. Future Road Map of the Organization Varutra is focused towards expanding their boundaries across continents and creating a global presence. Moreover, they have extensive plans for growth towards increasing their human capital which will enable them to improve their existing strength in manifolds. Kishor describes, “In near future, we see Varutra as the most preferred brand in InfoSec Trainings and Certifications both in Corporates and Academics, Mobile Security is the area where Varutra will continue its efforts to achieve the next level of excellence in product and services. We also have very aggressive plans to grow extensively in our Managed Security Services offerings.”
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Xi Finserv Limited: Offering the Most Convenient Financial Services
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he financial services industry plays a vital intermediary role in the world economy as it moves money from entities with excess funds to those with a need for funds. It includes firms that are engaged in activities such as investing, lending, insurance, securities trading, and securities issuance. Xi Finserv Limited is one such leading financial services providing company with diversified and broad range of financial products and services to a substantial client base including Individuals to Industries. Refined and Expanded Services of Xi Finserv Founded in 2015, in Mumbai, Xi Finserv has offered clients a convenient and friendly way to look at financial services for over 3 years. There are basically 11 partners and all from different background of finance and that is why they carry the name Xi Finserv (Eleven Finserv). The company has multiple companies in their portfolio and domain but the major company that they work in is Xi Finserv Limited. So basically, the work is carried out on all the domains of the clients such as insurance, loans, financing, investment banking, stock marketing and the crypto currencies, which is very new to India right now. Over the years, Xi Finserv have refined and expanded its services and have grown to become one of the largest professional and Knowledge Bank and support Center in the country dedicated to serving the financial and banking sector. The company is now working in almost all the possible domains where they can.
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The Remarkable Man behind Xi Finserv Priyank Agarwal is the Chief Financial Controller at Xi Finserv Limited. He worked before as an investment banker with a thing in his mind to do something of his own. He always wanted to create something new and something good for the people of India, a developing nation. Specifically finance, it is something which is taken a bit like thing which is not very familiar or not very friendly to people. Priyank is an investment banker by profession and an entrepreneur by heart. He has been working on with multiple companies and multiple startups. He has also been consulting couple of companies as a freelancer on their fundraising requirements, on their corporate fundraising. Post to Priyank worked with different companies for couple of years, mentored a couple of startups and then he gradually took exit and started his own company. “Even today in India, when we talk to people I am a financer, give me some money for investment, they fear it. They think that they will lose their money, and they will lose their life earnings. That is not the case; finance is a huge domain where things from basic financial planning can be achieved with absolutely no risk. When there are certain no risk taking investment options, there are certain loans, there are lot many technicality feasible loans and insurances. There are number of options in
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Success or Failure is a part of game, believe in execution
finance and we need to make people aware and make them closer to what the finance is. I strongly believe that finance is something that should be a part of everyone’s life because that is how we can plan our future,” asserts Priyank. Quality of Service is the Key Xi Finserv believes that their quality of service helps them in maintaining long term relationship with clients. In financial segment, they need to maintain a relationship like a client and a professional. Most of the company’s clients also invite the Co-founders on functions like birthdays, weddings, anniversaries, dinner, and it’s more like a relation between two friends. So this is how Xi Finserv maintains relationship with all its clients. The most interesting part is, in this two and a half years of journey the clients of the company haven’ t withdrawn any money from them, which is indeed appreciable. The Values & Factors Government regulations are bigger challenges in India right now. According to Xi Finserv, there are lots of challenges as a financial company in India. The foremost challenge is the RBI regulations. Apart from this, from client’s perspective and marketing perspective there is not any challenge because this is a service oriented business and as far as we are giving good and quality service, we are good to go.
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Priyank Agarwal, Chief Financial Controller
company does not work like most of the startups do right now. Believe in Yourself and Never Quit According to Xi Finserv, their strength is their employees. The company has an enthusiastic team working for them and there were some instances when Xi Finserv was not able to pay them enough salary. But they never quit. They believed, “There will be a moment not today but tomorrow.” Everyone in the team is dedicated towards their work profile and salaries are the secondary thing that Xi Finserv thinks of, but firstly they are dedicated to achieve their goals and achieve their timely targets, and that is the biggest strength the company has. The future plan of Xi Finserv is to come up with government friendly Crypto currencies in India along with new technology introduced in the sector of finance, probably in the area of digital payments and digital economy. The company is working on Artificial Intelligence and a blockchain to create, so that they are better version of digital currencies. The company is also planning to launch it in 2018. They are working on some technological background of Artificial Intelligence.
Xi Finserv believes that here is just one factor that is helping them to succeed, which is the quality of service and the way of working. They work in a very huge manner, and basically in an old school manner. The | January 2018 |
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